{"id":14432,"date":"2013-03-13T15:39:11","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T19:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=14432"},"modified":"2013-03-13T18:09:35","modified_gmt":"2013-03-13T22:09:35","slug":"third-judge-admits-role-in-ticket-fixing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=14432","title":{"rendered":"Third judge admits role in ticket-fixing case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine jurists, 3 others accused of subverting justice at Phila. Traffic Court<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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

\"seal\"<\/a>A third defendant pleaded guilty Wednesday in an alleged, Philadelphia ticket-fixing scheme that federal officials say ensnared nine jurists, including a West Chester magisterial district judge.<\/p>\n

Fortunato N. Perri Sr., 76, of Philadelphia, a former senior Traffic Court judge, admitted receiving free auto repairs, free towing, free videos, and free seafood from a co-defendant in exchange for \u201cfixing\u201d tickets, a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.\u00a0 Perri would receive traffic citation numbers, the names of offenders, or the actual citations to arrange \u201cfixing\u201d the ticket and would convey the information to William Hird, a Traffic Court administrator who also faces charges, the release said.<\/p>\n

Hird, in turn, allegedly conveyed the request to the assigned judge.\u00a0H. 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 their roles in the alleged conspiracy last month.<\/p>\n

A total of \u00a012 defendants,\u00a0including West Chester Magisterial District Judge Mark A. Bruno, were indicted Jan. 31. The following day, the state Supreme Court suspended Bruno and two other judges without pay, pending final disposition of the criminal charges. Like Bruno, both Hogeland and Miller worked occasionally for Traffic Court as fill-ins, accepting assignments when requested.<\/p>\n

Federal officials allege Perri helped Hird move up the ladder to a high-level post at Traffic Court, thus securing Hird\u2019s loyalty.\u00a0 Recorded conversations demonstrate that Hird acceded to Perri\u2019s requests to \u201cfix\u201d certain tickets.\u00a0 Given Hird\u2019s administrative position at Traffic Court and access to the judges, Hird was allegedly able to facilitate requests for ticket-fixing for Perri.\u00a0\u00a0Perri arranged for preferential treatment on citations received by Perri\u2019s friends and associates, including Bruno, his plea memorandum said.<\/p>\n

As part of the scheme, 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.\u00a0 In many cases, the ticket-holder did not even appear in Traffic Court.\u00a0 As a result, the ticket-holders paid lesser or no fees and avoided getting \u201cpoints\u201d on their driver\u2019s record, thus defrauding the government and putting the public at risk from unsafe drivers, the release said.<\/p>\n

Bruno’s attorney, Vincent P. DiFabio, said the admissions of Perri and others would not affect Bruno’s case. “Regardless of guilty pleas by other people, we have said from the very beginning that we intend to vigorously defend this case,” DiFabio said.<\/p>\n

Hogeland and Miller are scheduled for sentencing May 24. Perri will come before U.S. District Court Judge Robert F. Kelly on June 21. Each of the three faces a possible advisory sentencing guideline range of zero to six months in prison, federal officials said.<\/p>\n

Lynn A. Marks, executive director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, a nonpartisan court reform organization, said the plea represented another positive step \u00a0“toward restoring public confidence” in the judicial system. \u201cThe timing of Judge Perri\u2019s guilty plea serves as powerful reminder to the dozens of Traffic Court judge hopefuls that judges, whether they sit on Philadelphia Traffic Court or the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, are not above the law.\u201d Marks said.<\/p>\n

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

Nine jurists, 3 others accused of subverting justice at Phila. Traffic Court By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times A third defendant pleaded guilty Wednesday in an alleged, Philadelphia ticket-fixing scheme that federal officials say ensnared nine jurists, including a West Chester magisterial district judge. Fortunato N. Perri Sr., 76, of Philadelphia, a former […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,317],"tags":[2971,2972,2969,2635,2702,2605,2606,2507,2970,2704],"class_list":["post-14432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-region","tag-h-warren-hogeland","tag-kenneth-miller","tag-lynn-a-marks","tag-pennsylvania-supreme-court","tag-pennsylvanians-for-modern-courts","tag-philadelphia-traffic-court","tag-ticket-fixing","tag-u-s-attorneys-office","tag-u-s-district-court-judge-robert-f-kelly","tag-west-chester-magisterial-district-judge-mark-a-bruno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432","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=14432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}