CRANSTON, R.I. -- "Attitude poor" was the note that a Rhode Island state trooper included in a 1984 speeding ticket issued to then Yale professor Henry Louis Gates.
Records do lack a description of the words exchanged during the stop. The decades-old incident occurred on I-95 in Richmond, a town south of Providence.
Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal Magistrate William Guglietta said it is not unusual.
"We get these all the time," said Guglietta.
Gates contacted the Rhode Island Traffic Court in 2002, asking to settle the fine. The case was dismissed after he paid a court cost of $25.
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