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Wednesday, March 04, 2015

Are Panto's Parking Police Playing Favorites?

As you know, Easton's parking ticket enforcement is illegal. District Attorney John Morganelli first raised concerns about this last month, when he went under cover and got a ticket himself. In his opinion, the seizure or immobilization of someone's car without notice or an opportunity to be heard, is a blatant violation of due process. Easton Mayor Sal Panto would later explain that the city has decided to enforce tickets as a civil procedure. But he was unable to state what authority he has to proceed civilly. He had none. Easton is currently revising its ticket ordinance so that it can proceed civilly, but it has yet to implement the review process demanded by the due process clauses of our state and federal constitution. My concern is that this review, in which police officers act as judges,might be an invitation to corruption in which tickets are voided based on who you know,as opposed to the circumstances. A response to a recent Right-to-Know request appears, ast least superficially, to justify that concern.  

Easton voided 3,534 parking tickets last year, but has no record of the appeals that were denied. I filed a Right-to-Know with Easton, seeking the identity of the persons who won their appeals. If I see one person has 10 or 15 tickets voided, that would tell me we have a problem. Unfortunately, the City responded to tell me it has no record of these voided tickets by name.

But the City does have records by license plate, and I got them yesterday.All 89 pages, which you can read yourself here if your suffer from insomnia .

It's too early for me to tell for sure if certain people are getting special favors, but it's beginning to look that way in these cases.

  • A person driving a Toyota with plate number GPG2729  had 13 tickets voided in 2014. 
  • A dude driving an Accura with MA plate number KRATEST had 11 tickets forgiven. 
  • Another person driving a Chevy with NJ plate X6113C was able to poof 8 tickets. 

In order to determine how many tickets were voided for a given plate number, I am going to go through the pdf file supplied. If any of you know of any program that will allow me to search words like  GPG2729 within a pdf file, let me know. I am aware of the search feature in the Adobe reader, but it does not work.
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30 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 12:17 AM

    Use Adobe acrobat and "ocr" (optical character recognition) the file. Very simple and will save you hours!

    Once the filed is OCRed you can search it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bernie O'HareMarch 4, 2015 at 12:21 AM

    Thanks. Will give that a go.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 12:23 AM

    If the file was text when it was made into a PDF, you should be able to search it. If not, you can't.

    If you have the full version of Acrobat, you can convert it as the first comment says. I just tried it. In Reader, you probably don't have that option.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bernie O'HareMarch 4, 2015 at 12:26 AM

    I have reader.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 12:32 AM

    Although you have a hard on for Panto and this entire parking thing, this is mean spirited. You want to identify people who may have done nothing wrong. For purely political reasons based on your anger, you may put these innocent people in jeopardy by implying they did something illicit.

    Jobs may be lost lives destroyed. You have no shame or sense of proportion in your rage.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dandy LionMarch 4, 2015 at 12:35 AM

    That's why he was dubbed "Edgar" by the Ridge St stunner, he's a ruthless busybody hell bent on playing private investigator when nobody has even hired him.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bernie O'HareMarch 4, 2015 at 12:39 AM

    I'm not identifying anybody. I am looking at license plates to see if multiple violations were forgiven to the same person. There is nothing mean-spirited about this. It is an attempt to determine if favorites are being played or not.

    If I determine that favorites are being player, then I will want to know the identity of these favorites. If you don't like it, too bad.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 4:57 AM

    @ 2:18 you are quite the drama queen grow up 1

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 6:28 AM

    I'd like to know how somebody can get a dozen parking tickets voided.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 6:50 AM

    Well what happened to Morganelli's tickets? Is the mayor going to press the issue?

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 7:18 AM

    I understand the city is trying to do this through civil means but doesn't the state mandate the process in regards to parking tickets specifically?? I mean this is a parking ticket? or isn't that so until it reaches the Magistrate level? Before that point it is just a demand for money as I see it and unless it is filed within the MDJ court within 30days I can through it in the garbage. I'm not stating this is what I would do I'm just trying to make a point that unless there is some bite to go with these tickets most can easily ignore them.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 7:19 AM

    *through

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 7:19 AM

    Damn auto correct....THROW!! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  14. monkey mommaMarch 4, 2015 at 8:28 AM

    Sorry, naysayers. There's a story here. Bernie, this just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.

    ReplyDelete
  15. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 9:00 AM

    Bernie
    This is a very important story.
    Unfair treatment of some vs. those smart enough or well-connected enough...Keep up the good work. Amazing Mayor Panto thinks he can do this.

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 9:04 AM

    Bernie
    I agree with your statement that you are not exposing anyone but what appears to be unfair treatment of some. Many people do not have the money or power to challenge even a parking ticket that can throw a small salary earner's wages into chaos.

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 9:07 AM

    What is Mulligan's license plate number?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Bernie O'HareMarch 4, 2015 at 9:18 AM

    "Well what happened to Morganelli's tickets? Is the mayor going to press the issue?" It was ticket, not tickets. Morganelli has not paid this ticket, and has instead written a letter outlining his concerns. So far as I know, he has no intention of paying an illegal ticket that was issued with no authority.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Bernie O'HareMarch 4, 2015 at 9:23 AM

    "I'd like to know how somebody can get a dozen parking tickets voided."

    I suppose there could be an explanation. But 12 indicates a connection, especially since these come at different times.

    ReplyDelete
  20. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 9:47 AM

    Try downloading Able2Extract, they have a free trail version, may save you some money there. I use this program constantly. You can convert a PDF to word, excel, and PowerPoint. Good luck and I appreciate your perseverance with this.

    ReplyDelete
  21. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 9:52 AM

    Mulligan drives a BMW x5. His partner drives a ford escape. I think you will find that most of the multiple tickets are going to be college students who brought a different car with them that didn't have a sticker and parked it on the street in a permit zone for several days and acquired a number of tickets. That happens frequently. So they bring the parents other car back to college after break and they forget that it doesn't have a sticker and they park it on the street for several days without using it. That is more than likely the case with the MA plate.

    ReplyDelete
  22. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 9:55 AM

    Mulligan would have a Jersey Plate

    ReplyDelete
  23. Bernie O'HareMarch 4, 2015 at 10:02 AM

    9:52, That's plausible, and is not something that justifies forgiving the ticket. They did not have a permit for the car that was illegally parked. Plus the license plate KRATEST is quite odd. in any event, I want to look at it all.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Bernie O'HareMarch 4, 2015 at 10:47 AM

    Two anti-Lebanese comments from Henry Schaadt have been deleted.

    ReplyDelete
  25. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 11:34 AM

    Interesting that the double tickets were excused. One must assume that these are the double tickets they give for expired inspections. they actually give you 1 ticket for expired inspection and 1 ticket for expired emissions. Crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Bernie O'HareMarch 4, 2015 at 11:44 AM

    I'm downloading an OCR program so I can search by plate number.

    ReplyDelete
  27. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 12:19 PM

    Bernie,

    If all else fails, you can print it and then scan it using an OCR program (one probably came with your scanner).

    I know it sounds like going around the block to get next door, but there times I've seen it work where nothing else did.

    Best,
    Jeffrey Anthony

    ReplyDelete
  28. AnonymousMarch 4, 2015 at 2:03 PM

    Having access to a program that allows you to stalk people by their license plate number should be illegal. Only law enforcement should have that ability.

    Hopefully, Morganelli will continue to do his job and file charges against you if you harass and people over this political feud.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Bernie O'HareMarch 4, 2015 at 2:32 PM

    Thanks, Jeff, I will try that. The OCR program I downloaded does not work.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Bernie O'HareMarch 4, 2015 at 2:33 PM

    2:03, File a complaint.

    ReplyDelete

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