Judge Candidate Says He'll Pay $273 in Parking Tickets

Whoever becomes Easton's next district judge will likely spend a lot of time dealing with unpaid parking tickets.

But one of the five candidates for the job has found himself on the other side of the bench, after racking up $273 in unpaid tickets in Lehigh County.

Those tickets were issued to attorney Tim Prendergast on May 30, 2012 in Allentown, but went unpaid long enough for a bench warrant to be issued.

Prendergast acknowledged Thursday that he should have paid the tickets, and said he would head to District Judge Karen Devine's office "first thing" Friday to take care of them.

"It's not as though I'm trying to cheat the system," he said. "It'll be paid. I'm not a scofflaw."

He said it was an oversight. He gets ticketed frequently when trying cases in Lehigh County Court and sometimes doesn't pay right away.

"Everything in Lehigh County Court takes three hours, and the meters are two hours," Prendergast said.

Sometimes it's beyond his control, he said, such as when he's arguing in court.

In the case of the tickets from last May, Prendergast said his secretary called Devine's office two weeks ago to try to arrange payment before a warrant could be issued, and was told to call the Allentown Parking Authority. The authority sent them back to Devine, he said, but a worker at Devine's office told Prendergast's secretary the tickets weren't there at the time.

Devine's office said warrants for unpaid parking tickets aren't unusual, although they're as enforced as seriously as other violations.

Prendergast, of College Hill, is running against fellow attorney Antonia Grifo, Easton controller Tony Bassil, constable Lance Wheeler and code inspector Sharbel Koorie.

The district includes part of the West Ward, College Hill and the city's downtown, which means a bulk of Easton's unpaid parking tickets and traffic matters will eventually make their way before the new judge.