Pennsylvania official challenges town's traffic-ticket deal-making
By David DeKok
HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - A small Pennsylvania town padded its coffers with tens of thousands of dollars that should have gone to the state by allowing drivers ticketed for speeding to plead guilty to a town parking violation instead, a state official said on Thursday.
Auditor-General Eugene DePasquale said Laceyville, about 41 miles northwest of Scranton, allowed more than 1,000 motorists pulled over for speeding on U.S. Highway 6 between 2009 and 2013 to plead guilty to parking illegally in a space reserved for the handicapped.
Instead of giving the state 65 to 70 percent of the revenue generated by typical $166 speeding fines, Laceyville kept all of the money from the parking fines. Assessed by a local ordinance, the parking fines varied but were typically between $60 and $100, according to a report by the auditor-general.
“There’s no question in my mind,” DePasquale told Reuters. “They were trying to generate revenue.”
DePasquale said the United States Attorney's Office and the Pennsylvania State Police are investigating the scheme. He warned that state auditors would keep a sharp eye out for similar practices.
"This audit should serve as a warning and a wake-up call to local courts and police units across the state that these actions will not be tolerated," he said.
In Laceyville, police would tell motorists to plead not guilty to speeding, then accept a “plea bargain” at their hearing that required them to falsely swear they were guilty of a handicapped parking violation. The town, which has 371 residents, has only one handicapped parking spot.
Both the former Laceyville chief of police, who is not identified in the audit, and Magisterial District Judge John Hovan in nearby Tunkhannock collaborated on the scheme, the report said.
Hovan was not available for comment. But in the audit report he defended his actions as accepting plea bargains brought to him by the chief of police.
Ken Patton, mayor of Laceyville during the period the scheme was in operation, said the chief assured him it was legal, “just like a plea bargain.”
DePasquale's predecessors twice exposed similar problems in the town of Hartleton.
Hartleton Chief of Police Daniel Zerbe lost his job in 2014 after he was convicted of extortion for requiring speeders to write a $150 check to the town’s playground fund to escape a speeding ticket. He also defended the practice as plea bargaining.
DePasquale said auditors recommended that Laceyville pay $43,756 to the state in restitution, or half the amount collected from the parking fines.
(Reporting By Frank McGurty, editing by David Alexander)
