Man Sues City, Says Parking Tickets Weren't For Him
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A west suburban man has filed suit against the City of Chicago because he was sent parking ticket notices when he hadn't even been in the city.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Bernie Tafoya reports, Paul Kozlowski received notices of two city parking violations last March.
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The suit claims Kozlowski received a ticket in the mail in March 2010 that alleged his car blocked a driveway or fire lane at 6:55 p.m. March 9, 2010, at 1500 N. Kildare Ave., but his car was at his Clarendon Hills home when the citation was issued.
Kozlowski claims he received a second ticket claiming he illegally parked or blocked an alley at 2434 N. Luna Ave. at 5:42 p.m. March 27, 2010, but his car was in Lake Geneva, Wis., when the citation was issued.
The two tickets, worth $300, were eventually dismissed, according to the lawsuit.
Kozlowski says he was "stunned" by the violation notice, and he says Clarendon Hills police eventually reached out to Chicago Police to clear up the matter.
He says while it appears that two different officers wrote the parking tickets, it appears they were written from the same ticket book.
The suit claims the officers who wrote the tickets, Chicago Police Officers Crystal Rucker and Jerry Knickrehm, acted maliciously and with a conscious disregard and deliberate indifference to Kozlowski's rights.
The police Internal Affairs Department conducted an investigation, but results were never shared with Kozlowski, the suit said.
The five-count suit is seeking judgment against the City of Chicago and the two police officers, plus the cost of the suit.
Kozlowski calls what happened to him, "unbelievable", and he says he wants, through his lawsuit, to help prevent the same thing from happening to anyone else.
A representative of the city's Department of Law was not immediately available for comment.
