Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 2, 1994 TAG: 9404040187
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RON BROWN STAFF WRITER NOTE: below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
She's a parking violator who hasn't paid her tickets.
But the 28-year-old Roanoke County woman, who was No. 2 on a list of people last year who'd accumulated the most in fines and penalties and were summoned to court, says she's been treated more harshly than many jailhouse types.
Since going to court on 18 parking tickets she received last year, Bishop has been ordered to work about 65 hours of community service and has accumulated about $1,000 in fines and court costs.
``People get off easier for murder than they can get off from a parking ticket,'' she said.
Hers is a story of how a person who neglects her court-ordered debts finds herself careening toward financial ruin.
Bishop hasn't followed her payment plans or even kept court dates with judges who could have considered her circumstances and possibly given her a break.
The hassles in her life began last year when she worked downtown in a sales job. Her boss told her to park on the street and he'd pay the ticket, she said.
Subsequently, her boss left town and she left her job after the company offered her no salary, just a commission.
``If you don't have $5,'' Bishop said, ``you don't have $15.''
That's a parking fine and a late fee.
And if you don't pay either, you get summoned to General District Court, which tacks on a processing fee that brings the amount owed to about $50 per ticket.
By Friday, Bishop's tab for parking tickets in General District Court stood at $482. She'd been assigned community service to work off her debt, but had done only 8.45 of the 65 hours she'd been told to perform.
She'd appealed six parking tickets to Circuit Court, but never showed up for court. The judge tried her in her absence and assessed her $600 for the tickets in fines and court costs.
The Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney's Office contacted Bishop in late summer or early fall and attempted to set up a payment schedule for her to pay off the tickets.
Bishop told Wanda Wills, the office's collection specialist, that she would pay $100 a month.
``She told me how much she would pay,'' Wills said. ``I didn't tell her.''
Bishop paid for two months, then stopped. That's when community service was ordered.
Wills said Bishop has never called the office to make new payment arrangements.
The courts have contacted Bishop. She's been summoned on a show-cause order for April 14 to explain why her community service hasn't been done. It's a date she can't afford to miss.
``If you don't go to court,'' she said, ``they'll throw you in jail for parking tickets.''
Bishop said her situation is borne out of financial hardship.
With no steady job and two children from a failed marriage, Bishop was forced to make some choices.
``You get to the point of having a choice of paying the $5 fine or picking up a gallon of milk,'' she said.
Just when things were going bad, they got worse.
Bishop found out last fall that she was pregnant, and she had to go on public assistance. The pregnancy started sapping her strength and her back started hurting, so she couldn't work or perform the community service, she said.
She faced the dilemma of having to ask for assistance on the one hand and pay the court the parking fines she owed on the other.
Her fiance is a college student, and he has little money to help her.
While the excuses keep coming, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Mac Doubles doesn't understand why Bishop is reluctant to stay in touch with court officials who could help her figure a way to get the tickets paid.
``We're not heartless,'' Doubles said.
But he emphasized that it was Bishop's excesses that led to her trouble.
``There may be some truth to her story,'' he said. ``I could understand it if a person received one or two tickets, but this happened fairly often.''
by CNB