Pa.: Laxity in Chesco cost taxpayers $1 million
Police jeopardized public safety and cost the state and a Chester County township nearly $1 million in lost revenue by cutting breaks for truckers whose vehicles violated weight limits, the state auditor general said Monday.
Police jeopardized public safety and cost the state and a Chester County township nearly $1 million in lost revenue by cutting breaks for truckers whose vehicles violated weight limits, the state auditor general said Monday.
East Whiteland Township police allowed the drivers to plead guilty to a non-traffic local-ordinance offense rather than a state overweight-vehicle violation, which substantially reduced their fines and fees, said Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.
"Weight limits on roads and bridges are there for everyone's safety, and the fines are high for a reason," DePasquale said in a statement. "It is unfair to all taxpayers to allow overweight vehicles to tear up our roads without paying the fines that could help offset the repair costs."
The practice took place from 2010 to 2013 in three district courts in Chester County, he said. Most instances were in the court on Paoli Pike in East Goshen Township, where Judge Chester F. Darlington presided. That court closed in January 2014 because of mandated redistricting.
The closing was unrelated to the ticket-fixing, said Elizabeth Dumond, the county's minor judiciary administrator.
Darlington alerted the auditor general to the practice when he departed, the department said.
For 160 citations in those three years, $220,157 was collected. The actual amount should have been $1.2 million, which East Whiteland Township would have split 50-50 with the state.
By collecting on local citations instead, the township did not have to share the revenue with the state, according to the auditor general.
According to the auditor's reports, citations were given out by police to trucks driving on a local road near the Great Valley Corporate Industrial Park. But police would "advise the defendant to plead not guilty and request a hearing," at which the defendant would be charged with the lower violation and avoid paying the higher fee.
A new justice at the district court in Exton became aware of the practice and attempted to put a stop to it, notifying the Chester County president judge, according to the reports.
East Whiteland police had not returned requests for comment Monday.
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