Terry wrote:

If the offense becomes criminal, and is heard by an administrative law
judge, then the burden of proof lies with the FAA.

There's a disconnect there, Terry. "Administrative" and "criminal" don't
match up.

The third and final stage of defending against an FAA action would be to
appeal the matter to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, after an
unsuccessful Administrative Law Judge Hearing and a subsequent appeal to
the NTSB or DOT.

http://www.wca-intl.org/articles/FAA...nt_Actions.cfm


Criminal actions in the Federal system would be heard initially by a
Federal District Court.

http://www.uscourts.gov/districtcourts.html

"The United States district courts are the trial courts of the
federal court system. Within limits set by Congress and the
Constitution, the district courts have jurisdiction to hear
nearly all categories of federal cases, including both civil
and criminal matters."


I'm sure there is even more to the matter than the above. AOPA and
Google are your friends.

Join AOPA, use Google, and fly safe.


Jack