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Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Ind. Courts - "Case of the mysterious parking placard solved"
Tom Spalding and Heather Gillers report today in the Indianapolis Star:
The meter always read "expired." But the champagne-colored Toyota sedan never seemed to get a ticket.A placard on the dashboard said simply "federal judge official business." No name. No authorizing signature. No date. No contact information. Nothing to suggest the car's owner had special permission not to feed the meter.
AdvertisementNo tickets were ever issued, though, because until October there were so many different parking passes in circulation Downtown that meter enforcers could not verify whether the permit was legitimate.
It wasn't.
After a bit of digging, it turns out the car belongs to administrative law judge Reinhardt F. Korte, who is one of 12 administrative law judges assigned to Indianapolis by the Social Security Administration to hear complaints.
SSA spokeswoman Carmen Moreno said neither Korte nor any of the other dozen administrative law judges were authorized to get free parking. They also aren't authorized to use a pass.
Korte, 63, said through Indianapolis attorney John Forbes that he acquired the permit from a now-retired judge, William Vaughn, sometime around 2006 and assumed it was OK to use. Following The Star's inquiry, Korte called the Office of Inspector General to inquire himself, Forbes said, and stopped using the pass.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 19, 2008 08:53 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts