{"id":13819,"date":"2013-02-12T18:10:16","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T23:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=13819"},"modified":"2013-02-12T18:10:16","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T23:10:16","slug":"two-judges-plead-guilty-to-traffic-ticket-fixing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=13819","title":{"rendered":"Two judges plead guilty to traffic ticket-fixing"},"content":{"rendered":"

They will receive consideration for cooperation<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/span><\/strong>, Managing Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"seal\"<\/a>Less than two weeks after a sweeping federal indictment of alleged ticket-fixing in Philadelphia\u2019s Traffic Court, two of the nine judges accused in the case pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n

H. Warren Hogeland, 75, of Richboro, a Bucks County senior magisterial district judge, and Kenneth Miller, 76, of Brookhaven, a Delaware County senior magisterial district judge, admitted Tuesday to participating in a scheme in which tickets were \u201cfixed\u201d by either being dismissed, finding the ticket holder \u201cnot guilty,\u201d or finding the ticket holder guilty of a lesser offense.<\/p>\n

Seven other jurists, including West Chester Magisterial District Judge Mark A. Bruno, were indicted Jan. 31 along with a Traffic Court administrator and two area businessmen. The following day, the state Supreme Court suspended Bruno and two other judges without pay, pending final disposition of the criminal charges.<\/p>\n

Like Bruno, both Hogeland and Miller accepted assignments with Traffic Court when their services were requested, a news release from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office said.\u00a0The two defendants admitted to participating in the practice of giving breaks on traffic citations to friends, family, the politically-connected, and business associates, the release said.<\/p>\n

The release said Hogeland presided over a ticket issued to Miller\u2019s son and declared Miller\u2019s son \u201cnot guilty\u201d without his having to make an appearance.\u00a0 Additionally, Miller arranged for a ticket, received by \u201cJ.B.,\u201d to be declared \u201cnot guilty.\u201d\u00a0 Both defendants pleaded guilty to mail fraud; Hogeland also pleaded guilty to conspiracy, the release said.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Court Judge Robert F. Kelly scheduled sentencing hearings for both Hogeland and Miller on May 24.\u00a0 Each defendant faces a possible advisory sentencing guideline range of zero to six months in prison. Under the terms of Hogeland’s plea agreement, he will also pay a $500 fine. Miller’s plea agreement, which also includes a $500 fine, requires him to cooperate in the investigation and testify at future hearings if requested.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s guilty pleas by former Philadelphia Traffic Court Judges Warren Hogeland and Kenneth N. Miller are the first step on a long road to recovery for Philadelphia\u2019s court system,\u201d said Lynn Marks, executive director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts.<\/p>\n

Marks said she hoped the indictment would result in needed reforms. \u201cEveryone deserves the right to come to court with confidence that their case will be heard by a qualified, fair and impartial judge and decided on the facts and the law, not the political connections of the parties,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s time to end Philadelphia\u2019s culture of favoritism, entitlement and ticket-fixing in Traffic Court.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They will receive consideration for cooperation By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times Less than two weeks after a sweeping federal indictment of alleged ticket-fixing in Philadelphia\u2019s Traffic Court, two of the nine judges accused in the case pleaded guilty. H. Warren Hogeland, 75, of Richboro, a Bucks County senior magisterial district judge, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,317],"tags":[2703,2702,2704],"class_list":["post-13819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-region","tag-lynn-marks","tag-pennsylvanians-for-modern-courts","tag-west-chester-magisterial-district-judge-mark-a-bruno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}