Report: Cleveland clerk's office altered parking ticket payments for years
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Cleveland Clerk of Courts Earle B. Turner's office manipulated parking ticket payments for years, pressuring drivers into paying more than the law required, a Signal Cleveland investigation has found.
Why it matters: The alleged practice reportedly cost some Cleveland drivers hundreds of dollars and prevented others from legally registering their vehicles.
Driving the news: Signal's Mark Naymik reports that for roughly two decades, employees in Turner's office identified drivers with multiple tickets who had made payments to lift state registration holds (known as DETER holds).
- In some cases, staff removed $1 from credit card payments tied to those holds.
- That $1 was applied to unrelated tickets, often older violations or traffic camera fines, leaving drivers short of the amount needed to clear their hold.
- Drivers were then told they needed to pay all outstanding tickets to restore their registration.
The intrigue: The practice of making drivers pay off the entirety of their unpaid ticket balance was standard office policy, enforced at in-person cashier clerk windows and in mailed correspondence.
Between the lines: Naymik dug up internal memos dating back to 1999 instructing clerks to collect "all they owe" before releasing a hold.
Yes, but: In 2013, an internal email from a manager in Turner's office showed that they were aware they couldn't legally force drivers to pay fees from traffic camera violations.
- "If the customer tells us that they know the law for registration hold refers only to parking tickets then we can only require the payment of the parking tickets for the release," it read.
The other side: Turner declined to comment to Signal, but spokesperson Obie Shelton denied wrongdoing and said payment adjustments were a "workaround" for inadequate computer software.
- The office discontinued the $1 adjustments last fall after meeting with the city's Law Department.
Go deeper: How Cleveland Clerk of Courts Earle B. Turner's office misled drivers with unpaid parking tickets