An investigation into bogus Baltimore parking tickets appears to be widening as the city State?s Attorney?s Office begins reviewing cases.
The office is providing legal guidance for an investigation into illegitimate tickets launched by city Inspector General Hilton Green, said Margaret Burns, spokeswoman for the office of State?s Attorney Patricia Jessamy.
Burns said the office also has sent a letter to at least one couple, Bud and Deborah Becker of Catonsville, informing them that the office is looking into whether they should be refunded fines one of them received for bogus tickets.
“The letter speaks for itself,” Burns said. “This is an ongoing investigation launched by the inspector general with legal guidance from our office.”
Bud Becker said the letter referred to two tickets his wife received in June in two locations five minutes apart. The Dec. 10 letter stated the case had been referred to prosecutors for a possiblerefund of fines, he said.
“They told me when I called that the State?s Attorney?s Office was investigating my case,” he said.
The couple have been fighting City Hall for several months over the tickets.
The Examiner first reported several stories of area motorists who complained they had received illegitimate parking tickets, including multiple tickets to drivers in places where they claimed they were not parked.
After a series of articles in The Examiner documenting more cases of motorists claming they got bogus tickets, Mayor Sheila Dixon requested an investigation by Green.
The city?s Transportation Department admitted at least one agent had written bogus tickets and been suspended without pay.
Green has said he?s investigating at least 68 claims of illegitimate tickets, and Dixon?s office has promised an overhaul of the city parking enforcement.
Becker discovered his wife?s car had been issued two tickets within five minutes on the same evening in June by agent “L. Parker,” claiming the vehicle had been illegally parked in two locations several blocks apart.
“I went out and drove it, and there is no way my wife could have gotten in the car and driven to a new space in that amount of time,” he said. “It?s impossible.”
Since then, Becker said he has attempted to clear the ticket so he can renew his license tags.
Becker said he has also been seeking a lawyer for a possible class-action suit against the city.
