New Haven Independent: 8 Towed Who Didn't Owe

8 Towed Who Didn’t Owe

by Melissa Bailey | June 27, 2008 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

Tony and Tony had eight angry customers at their towing lot — innocent victims of a screw-up at the city tax office.

The customers were coming to get their cars after they were snatched in the middle of the night by the city Plate Hunter program. Prowling through the streets in the wee hours of June 18, the city’s license-plate-scanning device had identified their cars as belonging to tax scofflaws. Tony’s Long Wharf towing company, which was manning the Plate Hunter program on that shift, dutifully towed the cars.

Then Tony’s got a call from the city tax office saying there had been a screwup: None of the eight people actually owed back taxes. Tony’s was asked to release the cars.

The mix-up was the latest embarrassment to the city’s aggressive towing program. The program was the subject of a series of scandals and is undergoing a major overhaul.

“Eight people got towed mistakenly,” explained the city’s tax collector, C.J. Cuticello, Friday. The tax data that the city downloaded into the Plate Hunter device was “corrupt,” he said. “How it got corrupt I don’t know.”

Jumping the gun by over a month, the city had downloaded the data of people who had open tax bills, meaning they hadn’t yet made tax payments that are due on July 1. Taxpayers are supposed to have until Aug. 1 to pay those taxes before they risk getting towed.

“There was a problem with the data that converted into misinformation,” said Cuticello. “We apologize for the inconvenience.”

The Plate Hunter was largely phased out in favor of a boot clamp after the Independent reported incidents of favoritism. The device is still being used on occasional tax-tow shifts, the tax collector said. The shift is overseen by a “constable,” not a marshal, however.

Tony Juliano (at left in photo at the top of story) said his company let the customers go without paying, but has been reimbursed by the city for the fees.

Tony’s business partner, Tony Criscuolo, was at work Wednesday as people showed up to get their cars back.

“They weren’t all happy people,” Criscuolo said. Some were pretty mad, he said: Some had gone to the tax office, where they were asked to pay their tax bills — even though the payments weren’t due for another two weeks. Others had already paid their July 1 bill within the past 10 days, he said. Criscuolo was sympathetic to their concerns.

“Jesus, that’s kind of rotten,” Criscuolo said.

Cuticello said if the people paid their July taxes when they came to City Hall, they did so of their own “free will,” not as a requirement before getting their cars back. He said he didn’t know if any of the towees had already paid July taxes, as Criscuolo had contended.

All the falsely accused scofflaws picked up their cars on the same day they were seized.

The incident sparked an angry letter to City Hall from attorney Robert G. Oliver, on behalf of Vincent DiLauro (at right in photo), who heads the city’s towing association.

In the June 18 letter, Oliver wrote that he has been advised that his clients (members of the towing association) have been ordered to tow cars for taxes when in fact no back taxes were due.

“That would be a serious violation of state law and expose the city to civil liability, while forcing my clients, through no fault of their own, to return vehicles without charge when the owner appears,” Oliver wrote.

“I strongly urge that you put an end to this confusion.”

Cuticello said the city has fixed the corrupt data, repaid Tony’s, and has not had any further issues with erroneous tows.

Previous coverage of New Haven’s towing and marshal industries:

There’s A New Sheriff In Town

Marshal Plan Would Spread Wealth

Marshals Lose Towing Gig; Foreclosures Next?

Mayor’s Favorite Marshal Rakes In $196K

“They’re Thieves”

Marshals Sent To School

DMV To Towing Companies: No Sealed Bids

Third Towing Scrape Detailed

Clergy “Exemption” Detailed

New Towing Probe Sought

$200 For 4 Hours

Towing Program Halted

Kimber Gets Off The (Towing) Hook

“We’re Not Double-Dipping”

Alvin Goes For The Chevy

Towing Co. Ducks Tax Bill

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Comments

Posted by: can't wait to leave | June 27, 2008 3:22 PM

Its great to see the towing company got paid, but I think the victims should be compensated as well.

Posted by: fairhavendoc | June 27, 2008 3:43 PM

the cars should have been brought back to where the cars were towed from in the first place. what a major f--- up. and what an inconvenience for those innocent people to have to go to the towing company to get their cars back. the city really has to get their act together on this stuff.

Posted by: Walt | June 27, 2008 4:40 PM

It is nice that Cuticello at least apologized for the screwup.

I wish he had done the same when they screwed up earlier and sued me for taxes on a house I had never owned, lived in or probably even seen.

No apology or correction from Cuticello. Just a few months of unneeded court irritation which never would have happened if Cuticello had taken any corrective action .

Posted by: bugupit | June 27, 2008 5:29 PM

"Eight people got towed mistakenly," explained the city's tax collector, C.J. Cuticello, Friday. The tax data that the city downloaded into the Plate Hunter device was "corrupt," he said. "How it got corrupt I don't know."

Aldermen, our elected representatives, are you listening?

Stop the oppression of incompetence!

When your Taxpayer Constituents piss and moan and say "What do we get for our taxes?" THIS is typical of what they are remembering!

Posted by: In The Hood | June 27, 2008 5:48 PM

There is a culture of bad attitude in that tax office --when you go there to pay -- that is abominable and unacceptable.

Posted by: Fedupwithliberals | June 27, 2008 5:52 PM

"How it got corrupt I don't know."

C.J., everything in the DeStefano administration gets corrupted over time.

Posted by: Gary Doyens | June 27, 2008 10:24 PM

What a sad and pitiful commentary. One would think that if you're going to take such strong punitive action against taxpayers, the city would at very least make sure it is doing so with correct information. That, I'm quite sure is covered in government 101. I guess they weren't connected either.

Posted by: Q | June 28, 2008 12:50 PM

More time & money wasted by the city.

Posted by: -fairhavener- | June 28, 2008 10:24 PM

Gary,

This isn't a government. At least not one imagined by our founding fathers, I'm sure.

I think it's about due time for a New Haven Car Party. Not sure how that's going to work though. I can't imagine that we all drive our cars into the harbor. That doesn't make too much sense. Maybe someone's got a better idea.

Posted by: bugupit | June 28, 2008 11:54 PM

Gary, you are right and I have said it before. Bootfinder gives unreasonable power where the government has proven itself susceptable to innacuraicies -- and the stakes are too high for taxpayers.

Posted by: jeffreykerekes | June 29, 2008 9:28 AM

Paul:

Just to be clear for transparency sake, is the State Marshal Peter Criscuolo from many NHI stories related to towing guy Tony Criscuolo? Is Claire Criscuolo, of Claire's Cornucopia related to these folks?

Posted by: Alphonse Credenza | June 30, 2008 10:16 AM

But, can't you tell, people, that the City is doing its best?

[snicker]

Posted by: James | July 2, 2008 10:39 AM

It turned out well for these folks. I got my current vehicle towed for FY2007 taxes that I "owed" on a vehicle that I hadn't owned during that time. I put on a smile and went down to city hall where the drone at the desk simply kept repeating, "It says here you owe $187.50." But, I argued, here is the bill of sale and the transfer of title, dated before the beginning of the FY. Surely you agree that I cannot owe taxes on a car that I don't own. She agreed. And then repeated, "It says here you owe $187.50." Needless to say I refused to pay and wrote a letter to CJ, along with the necessary documentation. I never did get a response, but they did manage to tow my current vehicle. I learned my lesson. Don't try to reason with the City. It doesn't get you anywhere but towed. On a similar note, despite towing me the folks at Tony's are really nice folks. They empathized with me and even game me a smoke and a ride back to work. But CJ and his band of undereducated, lazy-ass drones can kiss the fattest part of my ass.

Posted by: Deuce | July 2, 2008 12:23 PM

James, the tax office should have told you to go across the hall to the assessor's office, where your bill would've been pro-rated or removed depending on the date of sale and supportive documentation.

Posted by: Mister Jones | July 2, 2008 1:30 PM

Another example of a flawed program. The boot clamp system is a law unto itself. They boot cars blocking fire hydrants and private driveways, and the police won't act, saying it's out of their jurisdiction. Car blocks driveway, and instead of getting towed, the city boots it, blocking the driveway even longer. Hello Kafka.

New Haven Independent

8 Towed Who Didn’t Owe

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