Long Island man ticketed for truck he no longer owns. DMV says it's part of a larger issue in NYC
A New York state agency is calling out the city for not using up-to-date information when writing tickets after CBS News New York brought one man's case to their attention.
The Long Island man says the process of fighting a ticket turned into a nightmare, and CBS News New York's Tim McNicholas found the chances of winning are already slim.
Hector Colon told McNicholas he lives in Ronkonkoma and doesn't often venture into New York City. He's a maintenance supervisor for a gated community on Long Island, about 40 miles from the city limits.
So imagine his surprise when he got a New York City parking ticket in the mail last spring -- and then, another and another. He ended up with a total of eight tickets and notices from the city saying he owes nearly $1,000.
"I can't afford $1,000 that I could be using for my bills for something that I didn't even do," he said, adding he needs the money for his diabetes medicine.
The tickets list the same make, model and VIN as a truck that Colon says he sold. The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles confirmed to CBS News New York he transferred the title months before the violations.
He says he tried to fight the tickets with records showing he had canceled his insurance and surrendered his license plate, but an administrative judge for the city's finance department still found him guilty.
"They, basically, said that it was insufficient evidence," Colon explained.
State DMV says city finance department isn't using real-time data
The state DMV says the city's finance department has access to real-time DMV registration data, but the DMV says it has repeatedly brought ticket complaints to the city's attention that show the finance department is not always using that information.
"We would defer to them as to why they are not using up-to-date records to issue citations to New Yorkers," a DMV spokesperson said.
The city says it regularly uses DMV data but what it called "timing issues" can impact the quality of information, and it encourages motorists to promptly report any transfers to the state - which Colon says he did, but was still found guilty.
"My wife paid about, I would say, about $600 worth of it," he said. "She was like, 'You know what, let me just pay some of them, so they don't garnish his check.' She was just scared it was going to be more of a hindrance for me."
Data obtained by CBS News New York shows the finance department issued more than 16 million tickets last fiscal year for illegal parking and traffic camera violations.
Most people don't fight the tickets, but of those who did, 457,000 got dismissed because of a not guilty decision. That's 3% of all tickets, and 30% of all tickets that had hearings.
City connects Colon with Parking Summons Advocate
Larry Berezin is a retired attorney who helped New Yorkers fight tickets by attending City Council meetings and running an advice blog.
"What is the mission of the Department of Finance? The mission is to raise money," Berezin said.
He says the city should rethink its dispute process.
"To have the Parking Violation Bureau under the Department of Finance creates a conflict," he said. "If you were charged with a crime, and you're looking up at the judge and the judge is a police officer, how would you feel?"
The finance department insists the process is fair and says hearing officers and judges paid by the department are per diem employees, not staff.
The city would not agree to an interview for this story, but it has been using videos and social media posts to spread the word about its Parking Summons Advocate, Anthony Tse.
The city says Tse's office can "independently assist" with "...violation issues that cannot be resolved through normal Department of Finance channels."
When McNicholas reached out to the department on Colon's behalf, they connected him with Tse.
"He says he's going to submit all the tickets, even the ones that I paid, and they should, once it's dismissed, I should receive a refund," said Colon, adding, "I can't thank you enough, because I was actually, you know, losing it."
It's still not exactly clear to Colon why his initial dispute didn't work, and the city won't comment on his case. He initially argued he likely got the tickets because one of his plates had been stolen when he still had the truck.
Colon says the parking summons advocate said it may have actually been because he didn't remove his registration sticker. But, again, the DMV says he'd already transferred the title before the alleged violation dates.
