As tales of bogus parking tickets continue to mount, Baltimore City?s inspector general announced a full investigation of the parking enforcement agent alleged to have written fake tickets.
“We make all allegations of employee fraud or abuse a priority,” said Inspector General Hilton Green, the city agent charged with investigating employee fraud.
“And this investigation is a priority,” he said.
The Examiner first reported several fake tickets issued to city residents on Friday.
The city Department of Transportation admitted that fake tickets have been issued, but said the matter had been handled internally.
However, in an interview Friday, Mayor Sheila Dixon asked the inspector general to undertake an independent investigation.
“We?re gathering the information now,” Green said in a phone interview Monday.
Meanwhile, several other motorists have come forward.
“I was pretty mad,” said University of Baltimore law student Ryan McQuighan, who received a citation for illegal parking on Madison Street in March.
“I was visiting my parents on spring break in Calvert County, so I knew I wasn?t there,” he said.
Confident that his cell phone records would prove his whereabouts, McQuighan asked for a trial. The ticket agent showed up, but the citation was thrown out.
“The agent forgot to bring her ticket book,” said McQuighan, recalling only that the ticket agent?s name was “Boyd.”
Bel Air resident Paul Schatz, a retired school teacher, tells a similar tale.
“I assumed it was an overdue bill; it said I could pay the fine, which was $42. It was on a date I hadn?t been in Baltimore,” Schatz said of the citation that said he was illegally parked on Monument Street.
“I called an attorney friend and he said, ?Let?s fight,? so we requested a trial and never heard anything,” Schatz said.
Schatz said he thinks the ticket writer should be investigated.
“I?m a dyed-in-the-wool liberal. I love government, but someone should be punished for this,” he said.
Bill Kelly, also of Bel Air, said he received a bogus $52 citation for parking illegally at a bus stop on West North Avenue in May.
“I looked at my work schedule, and I was not there,” said Kelly, a Harford County employee.
“So I wrote Mayor Sheila Dixon a letter and said I know the city needs money, but this is a bad way to get it.”
In September a reply in the mail said he was ticketed in error, along with a letter from the mayor saying the matter had been resolved.
“Everybody said just pay it, but I couldn?t,” he said. “I knew I was not there.”
Join the discussion and take our poll in today’s examiNation Baltimore: What do you think about an investigation into allegations of bogus parking tickets?
