Former County Employee Pleads Guilty in Fake Parking Ticket Case

A former Prince George’s County Revenue Authority employee facing 41 charges of issuing illegal parking tickets has pleaded guilty, according to a news release.

State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks announced that former Revenue Authority employee Antoine Budd has pleaded guilty to one count of issuing a false document and one count of making a false entry into the public record, for issuing illegal parking tickets.

“Mr. Budd violated the trust placed in him by his supervisors at the Revenue Authority and by the public,” Alsobrooks said in the news release. “I believe this conviction will send a message to people letting them know that if you violate the trust placed in you, and break the law in the process, we will ensure that the trust is restored by prosecuting you to the fullest extent of the law.”

Budd was sentenced to five years, with all but 30 days suspended, for issuing a false document, and three years, with all but 30 days suspended, for making a false entry into the public record, Alsobrooks' office said.

The sentences will run concurrently and he must begin serving them on Wednesday, Nov. 13. Upon his release, he will be on supervised probation for five years and he must repay $6,253 to the Revenue Authority to cover the cost of gas he purchased, using a county gas card, when he was not working. 

The background on the case, from the State's Attorney release:

In April 2013 the Prince George’s County Revenue Authority began an investigation into parking citations that were issued after at least ten residents called the Citation Processing Office to complain about notices they had received.  All of the callers contended that their vehicles were not at the location indicated on the notice at the time the ticket was issued.

All of the tickets were for being parked in a fire lane. For fire lane violations an officer is supposed to take pictures of the vehicle to show it parked illegally. The ticket is created by the officer entering the information into a mobile device, which prints out a written ticket. The officer then signs the ticket under the penalty of perjury and leaves the printed ticket on the windshield.

The device’s data is then downloaded daily by the Revenue Authority. If a ticket receiver does not send payment for the ticket within 15 days, the Revenue Authority will mail a notice to the individual based on their MVA address.  It is when the individuals received theses notices that they learned of these tickets and called the Revenue Authority to complain.

A review of Budd’s camera showed that in eight of the 10 cases, no picture was taken. In the remaining two cases, the pictures were completely black and not visible. A check of other tickets issued near the time of the illegal tickets show that the camera was working properly.

Additionally a review of the tickets indicated that the tag numbers on the tickets did not match up with the actual vehicle make and model assigned to that tag number.  Furthermore, in the remarks section of each ticket it says the violation is a “Yellow Curb.”

Budd had been facing 41 charges related to each illegal ticket issued that the Office of the State’s Attorney was aware of.