All the news that fits... - deranged.mederanged.me

There has finally been a break in this 2009 Problem Solver case with Mark Geinosky receiving all those parking tickets – in the mail – for vehicles he no longer owned, were in the shop, etc. His pleas to the Chicago Police Department, starting in 2007, had fallen on deaf ears; he was forced to take time off from work for each and every court appearance. Geinosky believed these tickets could be traced back to someone dating his ex-wife. Here’s the latest.

Problem Solver: Police cite 3 officers over fake tickets; man vindicated

Orland Park man’s complaint: Cops wrote a pile of bogus citations

Jon Yates’ “What’s Your Problem?”

November 7, 2011

For years, Mark Geinosky has steadfastly maintained that the mountain of parking tickets that arrived in his mailbox were bogus.

Turns out, the Chicago Police Department agrees.

More than two years after the Problem Solver first wrote about Geinosky’s case, Superintendent Garry McCarthy has moved to fire three police officers for allegedly issuing the Orland Park resident false tickets.

Officers Steven Sabatino, Horst Hegewald and Paul Roque have been suspended without pay pending a hearing before the Police Board, which will determine if they should be terminated.

Geinosky, who received some of the tickets even after he sold his SUV, said Friday he was shocked by the news.

“Wow,” he said. “It appears as if this administration — the city and the Police Department — aren’t going to try to cover up corruption like the last administration did.”

McCarthy also recommended a fourth officer, William Whelehan, be fired in connection with the parking ticket case. Sources say Whelehan was terminated last week for an off-duty altercation unrelated to Geinosky’s case.

The internal charges against the officers were filed with the Police Board on Sept. 26.

Attorney Daniel Herbert, who represents Roque and Hegewald, said his clients deny the allegations.

“They’re completely innocent of the charges,” Herbert said. “The tickets were not written by them.”

Sources said Sabatino is currently serving with the military overseas.

In a Friday email to the Problem Solver, Whelehan said he has fully complied with the Police Department in its investigation, which he called “misdirected and partial.”

“I want to be clear that I have never met Mark Geinosky, nor have I ever issued any parking tickets to Mark Geinosky’s vehicle(s),” Whelehan wrote. “In fact, after learning details of his complaint, I too, am sympathetic to his frustrations.”

For Geinosky it has certainly been a frustrating journey.

He began receiving the parking tickets in late 2007. Over the next 14 months, he accumulated 24 citations, all for infractions such as parking too close to a fire hydrant, obstructing the roadway or parking in a crosswalk.

Geinosky swore he had never been to the locations cited on the tickets, which were often desolate stretches of the South Side where legal parking was readily available.

None of the tickets was attached to his car. He found out about each when notifications arrived in the mail, sometimes in batches of three.

He fought all 24 tickets in administrative court and was able to get each one thrown out.

Despite his repeated victories in court, the tickets kept coming.

Convinced he was being harassed, Geinosky filed a complaint with the Independent Police Review Authority in September 2008. His complaint was forwarded to the police Internal Affairs Department, which promptly closed the case without investigation.

Frustrated, he emailed What’s Your Problem? in early 2009. The Problem Solver wrote about his case on Feb. 24, 2009, prompting the Police Department to launch a fresh internal investigation.

In the years since, readers frustrated with the pace of the probe inundated the Problem Solver’s mailbox, pleading for updates.

Geinosky, too, became discouraged.

In March 2010, he filed a federal lawsuit against several officers claiming they conspired with his ex-wife to “injure and get vengeance” against him. Geinosky’s ex-wife has denied any involvement in the tickets, and the lawsuit was thrown out by a federal judge.

That case is on appeal.

Repeatedly, the Police Department responded to inquiries from the newspaper by saying the case remained under investigation. Over the years, the Problem Solver wrote about Geinosky more than a dozen times.

In August, the department said it had reassigned five officers to desk duty and forwarded recommendations for disciplinary action to the city’s Law Department.

Geinosky remained skeptical, saying at the time he feared the case would continue to drag on for years.

When he heard about the latest developments Friday, he was elated.

“I’m very surprised,” he said. “I think it’s a great step forward in starting to restore my confidence in City Hall.”

In asking the Police Board to fire the four officers, McCarthy said each of the officers violated three department rules, according to documents filed with the board.

McCarthy said the officers engaged in conduct “which impedes the department’s efforts to achieve its policy and goals or brings discredit upon the department,” that they disobeyed an order or directive, and that they made false reports.

McCarthy’s description of the internal charges against the officers does not include a motive, but mentions specific instances in which each officer wrote tickets to Geinosky’s vehicle when, in fact, the vehicle was not at the described location.

In the case of Sabatino, McCarthy said the officer issued Geinosky a ticket on Dec. 1, 2008, for parking within 15 feet of a fire hydrant at 4749 S. Paulina St., “when in fact the vehicle was at a used car lot at Bill Kay Ford located at or near 14633 S. Cicero Avenue.”

McCarthy also alleges Sabatino “failed to notify a supervisor after discovering the loss of his assigned Violation Notice Citation book,” in violation of a department special order.

The recommendations to discharge the officers are signed by both McCarthy and Sarah Harris, assistant corporation counsel for the city.

A spokesman for McCarthy said the superintendent was unavailable to talk.

Pat Camden, spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police, said his organization supports the officers.

“The union still believes there’s insufficient evidence to support dismissal,” he said. (italics mine, but remember, these are the same guys who interrupt your dinner to harass you for cash)

The Police Board has not set a hearing date for Sabatino, Roque, Hegewald or Whelehan.

Geinosky’s lawyer, Lawrence Jackowiak, said the move to terminate the officers gives more credence to the lawsuit.

“It gives us more confidence that our case will be reinstated, because a grave injustice was done here,” Jackowiak said. “This is an abuse of power that shouldn’t be tolerated.”