Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Two Of Three Charges Dismissed Against Subway Pug Owner
Two citations issued to arrested pug owner Chrissie Brodigan were dismissed today in a hearing at the MTA's Transit Adjudication Bureau. Hearing Officer Alexander Fox ruled the citations—one for failure to provide identification and another for failure to have dog in a container—were invalid because they had been "materially altered" by Officer Joel Witriol, who was absent from the hearing. Copies of the tickets given to Brodigan list 3:51 p.m. as the time the citations were issued, but official copies turned in by Officer Witriol to the Bureau showed the time was crossed out and changed to 4:51 p.m.
Such after-the-fact alterations can automatically invalidate a ticket, which Brodigan thinks wasn't an accident, "It is hard for me to believe that Officer Witriol did not realize that by altering my citations after he gave them to me that he was essentially invalidating all of them." Brodigan—who is still looking for work after being fired from her Plum TV job as a result of the arrest fallout—was also disappointed Witriol did not appear (and therefore could not be questioned) at the hearing.
She has filed a complaint against the officer with the NYPD's Civilian Complaint Review Board, which may consider the invalid tickets during its investigation of misconduct. A third charge against Brodigan for disorderly conduct is still pending and will be heard in criminal court in late August.
http://gothamist.com/2009/07/29/two_of_three_charges_dismissed_agai.php
Such after-the-fact alterations can automatically invalidate a ticket, which Brodigan thinks wasn't an accident, "It is hard for me to believe that Officer Witriol did not realize that by altering my citations after he gave them to me that he was essentially invalidating all of them." Brodigan—who is still looking for work after being fired from her Plum TV job as a result of the arrest fallout—was also disappointed Witriol did not appear (and therefore could not be questioned) at the hearing.
She has filed a complaint against the officer with the NYPD's Civilian Complaint Review Board, which may consider the invalid tickets during its investigation of misconduct. A third charge against Brodigan for disorderly conduct is still pending and will be heard in criminal court in late August.
http://gothamist.com/2009/07/29/two_of_three_charges_dismissed_agai.php
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