Webster County Sheriff Jim Stubbs has said that he requested a sheriff’s deputy write him a ticket for illegally riding an all-terrain vehicle on the highway, but that the ticket was not written at the time he was actually riding his ATV.

Stubbs pleaded guilty last Thursday in Webster County Magistrate Court to one count of illegally operating an ATV on a highway, a simple misdemeanor traffic citation.

The sheriff said he had been on his side-by-side ATV looking at property his family recently purchased. He initially believed the property was located on 150th Street, but realized that he was mistaken and that it was actually located on 160th Street.

Although riding an ATV on U.S. Highway 169 is illegal, Stubbs said that’s the quickest way to access 160th Street from 150th Street, so he rode on the shoulder of the highway.

As he was riding, he saw Webster County Sheriff’s Deputy Geoff Miller pulled over on the side of the road. Stubbs said he pulled up right next to Miller and the two briefly talked.

After a few days, during which Miller was off work, Stubbs contacted the deputy and asked him to write him a ticket for the illegal operation of an ATV on a highway.

Stubbs said Miller personally showed up at his house to write and give him the ticket.

“I called him up and he issued the citation,” Stubbs said. “I did it. I ordered it.”

Once he got the ticket, Stubbs said he went to Magistrate Court and pleaded guilty.

“I didn’t want to just go and pay it,” Stubbs said.

He could have paid it at the Webster County Clerk of Court’s office, but he wanted to appear in open court because he didn’t want anyone to think he was covering up something.

It’s only fair, as he did break the law, he said.

“If I’m going to have people out giving citations, then I need to hold myself to that higher standard as well,” he said previously. “And nobody’s above the law.”

Stubbs paid a fine of $132.50.