A politically connected marshal let a politically connected minister off the hook when the dreaded Plate Hunter came to snatch his car.
The Rev. Boise Kimber (pictured in photo at bottom), a key mayoral ally and powerbroker in the city’s black community as well as a city fire commissioner, was having a late dinner Wednesday evening at Portofino’s Restaurant and Bar on State Street. Meanwhile, the Lombard Motors towing crew prowled the streets to snatch the parked vehicles of scofflaws with unpaid parking tickets.
Lombard’s radar zeroed in on Kimber’s white GMC Yukon S.U.V., which was parked across the street from the restaurant.
Here’s what happened, according to city transportation chief Mike Piscitelli:
Beep! The Plate Hunter spotted the reverend’s license plate at 8:45 p.m. He had about $350 in unpaid tickets, the machine reported.
State Marshal Peter Criscuolo (pictured at the top of this story), who was supervising the car-seizing operation, made a call to the city traffic and parking headquarters to seek authorization to tow the behemoth away.
“We gave authorization to tow that car,” Piscitelli said. The car was so big, however, that it needed to be removed with a flatbed truck — a much more time-intensive operation than the standard hook-and-drag.
The Lombard crew had begun to position the flatbed for removal when out popped Kimber into the street.
“He engaged the tow truck agent and the marshal,” Piscitelli said. Kimber and Criscuolo exchanged words. Then Criscuolo reversed the towing order and let Kimber go free.
Anthony Monaco, who owns Lombard’s Motors, said Thursday that he’d heard about the incident, but wasn’t on the scene at the time. Criscuolo was overseeing the Lombard tow truck operators, he said. “He’s in charge. He says when to go, and when not to go.”
“A Glitch In the System”
Reached Thursday morning by phone, both Kimber and Criscuolo denied they had allowed any special favors to go through.
“I didn’t stop nobody from towing it,” Kimber said. “They gotta do what they gotta do.”
“I didn’t help anybody out,” Criscuolo claimed. “He [Kimber] didn’t owe any parking tickets” on the vehicle, he said.
When told that the car had over $300 in outstanding parking tickets, Criscuolo gave this response: “As far as I’m concerned, there was a glitch somewhere in the system.” In his time on the job, “I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of glitches in the system.”
Criscuolo said he’s spent the last 26 years as a state marshal. The job, which mainly entails hand-delivering court documents, is a lucrative position by which politically connected people can garner as high as six-figures annual earnings from the city while maintaining second jobs.
“I’ve been on the job longer that you’ve been on this earth,” Criscuolo told this reporter. “Believe me, there’s no story. You’re going on a witch hunt that doesn’t exist!”
Apparently there was story enough to warrant a late-afternoon emergency meeting on the subject. Criscuolo was brought before two city department heads and given a “verbal reprimand” for flouting towing policies, Piscitelli said.
According to city procedure, the Plate Hunter picks up any license plate that has at least $200 in outstanding parking tickets. After the initial ID, the state marshal or parking enforcement officer who’s supervising the towers makes a call into the traffic and parking department for authorization. If authorization’s given, the marshal is expected to go through with the tow, barring physical danger or lack of equipment.
In Criscuolo’s case, “There was a tow truck available to tow the car, and the car was not towed,” said Piscitelli.
“He used extremely poor judgment in the field by not allowing the tow to continue,” Piscitelli (pictured) said. He said he plans to send out a reminder of proper towing procedures to all marshals and parking enforcement officers before Friday night, when tow trucks resume hitting the streets in search of parking-ticket scofflaws.
After his verbal reprimand, Criscuolo hopped on a red Lombard’s Motor truck for a six o’clock shift to tow cars for unpaid taxes.
Meanwhile, Kimber, who serves as president of the state Baptist convention, still hadn’t paid the approximately $350 in unpaid parking tickets on his S.U.V. as of Thursday evening. Records show he also owes $148.20 in parking tickets, as well as $274.50 in property tax, on a 1991 Lincoln Town Car.
Previous coverage of New Haven’s towing industry:
“We’re Not Double-Dipping”
Thanks for this story. Please do a follow up to see if the Reverend pays all these back owed taxes and fines. What other "politically connected" people in town owe money? In a budget year with so many shortfalls, we should be getting this money. Does this Marhsall owe any money? The NHI already did a piece covering this <a href="http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2008/04/towing_fight_br.php" rel="nofollow">tow company</a>? What city contractors owe money? How about BOE and BOA members? City Department heads? City employees?
Thank you for covering this and I hope the above questions will lead to more stories on this important topic.