Catch 22 in Massachusetts

Looking back on it now, Irene "Renee" Moffatt realizes her biggest mistake was telling the truth. "I probably should've said my (handicap) placard fell on the seat or something," sighed Renee (she pronounces it REE-nee). "Then I bet none of this would have happened, and I wouldn't be talking to you right now."

Renee Moffat, an exceedingly vibrant 72, is almost certainly right about that. Problem is, she told the Weymouth parking Nazis the truth. And that was her downfall.
Not once, but twice she appealed her $100 ticket for parking in a handicapped space before the Weymouth parking board. On both occasions, Renee explained how she'd been late for a prescribed physical therapy appointment at the Weymouth Health Club and, as she was hobbling into the club, she forgot to pull her driver's visor all the way down, so as to fully display her handicapped placard.

The Weymouth parking Nazis said "Nein" twice. "I found them to be a very snippy and arrogant bunch," Renee said. "When I told them that my placard was in the visor, all they said was, `Well, you can't expect a police officer to go looking for it.'

"I wouldn't mind, but the parking lot for the health club happens to be in an office park. And it was after six in the evening. It wasn't as if I was holding up traffic or anything. And there were 20 other handicapped spaces."

In search of some justice, if not common sense, Renee decided to take her case to court - Norfolk Superior to be precise. "The girl in the clerk's office was very, very nice," Renee said. "She thought I had a pretty good case, too. Then, she hit me with the punch line. If I wanted to go ahead and appeal my $100 parking ticket, the girl in the clerk's office said the court would charge me $275 to file the appeal. "And ma'am, one more thing I have to tell you," she says to me, "even if you win, you won't get the $275 back."

"I couldn't believe it," Renee said.

Thank you, Mitt Romney, Jane Swift and Argeo Paul Cellucci, it was under this trio of Republican "tax-cutters" that all our state fees ballooned into nuttiness. So, court clerks can tell you with a straight face that fighting a $100 parking ticket will cost you at least $275.

Last August, the state Inspector General's Office, which pretty much fell asleep at the switch with the Big Dig, summoned the wherewithal to crack down on perfectly healthy people who were using handicap placards they'd inherited from dead relatives. But you should know that Renee Moffatt qualified for hers, thanks to a benign tumor that placed excruciating pressure on her foot. In advance of surgery, her doctor sent her to Bay State Physical Therapy, which happens to operate out of the Weymouth Health Club.

"When something like this happened once before," Renee said, "I showed the police officer my handicapped tag and he just discarded the ticket." But Renee was to learn that the Weymouth parking board, which ironically held its inquisitions in a senior citizen center, needed to justify its existence.

"My second parking board hearing was held after I had my surgery," Renee recalled. "I walked in there with crutches and a big plastic boot. I figured maybe this time I'll get some sympathy. But nothing doing. They just kept saying my placard wasn't clearly visible and hanging off my rearview mirror. Never mind that it was there sticking out of the visor, if the cop had bothered to look for it.

"I had my handicapped placard," Renee Moffatt said, "and I believe with all my heart that I didn't do anything wrong. But being forced to pay more than two and a half times as much as the parking ticket just to prove my point," she sighed. "Well, it just seemed like I couldn't win, no matter what.

"So, finally, I just sent the ticket in and said, `To hell with it, you win.!' "

Report here



(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)