Crime & Safety
‘You Again?’: Pregnant TX Woman Gets 2nd HOV Commuter Lane Ticket
The first ticket, issued days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, was dismissed. A second ticket is pending, though.
PLANO, TX — The pregnant Texas woman who said earlier this summer that she was entitled to use the commuter lane because her fetus counts as a second passenger was ticketed a second time for driving solo in the HOV, or high occupancy vehicle lane, according to reports.
Brandy Bottone, 32, of Plano, who was ticketed in the days after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, pointed to her swollen body when a Texas deputy asked her who else was in the car and told him, “Oh, it’s just the two of us.”
Her argument was compelling enough to win a dismissal of the June 29 ticket, but a spokeswoman for the Dallas District Attorney’s Office said in a statement the current ticket is pending, NPR reported.
Find out what's happening in Across Americafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Bottone’s original ticket received international attention, and when she was pulled over in the HOV lane of U.S. Highway 75 South HOV lane on Aug. 3, the deputy didn’t have to ask her name, she told the Dallas Morning News.
“You again?” the deputy reportedly said, then asked, “So when are you going to have this baby?”
Find out what's happening in Across Americafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“Tomorrow,” Bottone responded.
“Oh, good luck,” the deputy reportedly said as he wrote her a ticket.
After Roe v. Wade was overturned, all abortions are illegal in Texas except those performed to save the life of the mother, and a fetus is considered a person under the state’s fetal homicide laws. But the state’s Department of Transportation is moot on the point.
“One officer kind of brushed me off when I mentioned this is a living child, according to everything that’s going on with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, ‘so I don’t know why you’re not seeing that,’ ”Bottone told the Dallas Morning News at the time.
“One law is saying that this is a baby, and now he's telling me this baby that's jabbing my ribs is not a baby,” she told news station WFAA. “Why can't it all make sense?”
Bottone has since given birth to a girl.
“My second passenger has arrived!” she posted on Instagram. “We are so in love and will be spending all our time loving on baby girl.”
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
