CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md. – In June, Prince George’s County ticket writer Antoine Budd was indicted on 41 counts of fraud, perjury and misconduct. Now one alleged victim tells WTOP she still cannot believe what happened to her.
Nina Porter learned about her parking ticket when the Prince George’s County Revenue Authority sent her a notice to pay $500 for an outstanding ticket. The Prince George’s County Revenue Authority issues non-moving violations for the county.
Budd wrote a ticket on a vehicle belonging to Porter’s fiancee on April 4 at 12:12 p.m. for parking in a fire lane at Woodyard Crossing in Clinton, Md. Since Porter never received the initial ticket, penalties and other fees accrued.
“It was shocking, I was just pissed because it was $500,” says Porter in an exclusive interview with WTOP.
“As soon as I looked at the location, date and time, I knew it wasn’t true. So I got a letter from my boss and I took a picture of my ledger, which shows I was in Landover Hills at the time. I was like, ‘We got a problem here.'”
Porter drives disabled individuals around during the day. Her company requires employees to keep precise records on their whereabouts. Therefore, Porter had a paper trail to show her location on the date and time in question.
“I don’t know what type of game they are playing. I don’t know if there are quotas, or pressure to write tickets. I don’t know why he picked me,” she says.
Anthony M. Poteat, parking enforcement manager for the Prince George’s County Revenue Authority and representative of the State’s Attorney’s Office, reached out to Porter within days to void the citation and ask her to fill out a questionnaire.
“Rest assured, I will investigate this matter so it does not occur again,” Poteat wrote in an email to Porter on April 30.
As WTOP first reported in June, the Prince George’s County Revenue Authority was already investigating Budd about a huge drop in tickets between 2011 and 2012 when the complaints surfaced. At issue were large gaps of unaccounted for time during shifts Budd worked.
The new complaints became credible when the license plates on the tickets didn’t match the registered make and models. For example, Porter drives a Ford Contour, but the ticket claimed her vehicle was a blue Honda CRV.
In June, a grand jury indicted Budd on 41 counts of misconduct in office, perjury and fraud. At the time, prosecutors said Budd wrote 10 fraudulent tickets, but WTOP has learned that number went up.
“After he was charged, the Revenue Authority learned of two other citations that were determined to be fake involving vehicles that are registered out of the D.C. area. They voided/refunded those citations. Also, in my review of the evidence I identified another citation that was fraudulent and notified the Revenue Authority who advised they would dismiss the ticket,” writes State’s Attorney spokesman John Erzen in a statement to WTOP.
Porter will testify against Budd at trial in October.
“It’s terrible and I just think about the people who couldn’t prove where they were at. It seems to me that all the tickets he wrote should be pulled back. That’s the only fair solution,” she says.
“But I have to ask: Is he really the only one? I am paranoid a little after this, but is he really the only one? I don’t know.”
WTOP reached out to Lisa Robinson, a public defender representing Budd. She had no comment on the case or Porter’s claims.
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