State of Minnesota v. Shane Lee Olson

OPINION

ROSS, Judge.

A police officer used a handheld laser device and clocked Shane Olson’s car at 70 miles per hour in a 55-mile-per-hour zone. Olson challenged the ticket in court and objected to the admission of the officer’s testimony of his speed. He argued that the officer’s external testing of the laser unit failed to verify its reliability because the officer’s testing proved only that the unit accurately measures distance, and speed depends on an accurate measure of both time and distance. The district court overruled the objection and found Olson guilty. Because the officer’s…