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It's nothing nefarious. The guys just like to hang out there because it has a wide screen TV and some comfy chairs.

Does it bother anyone else that a retired officer has a key to the property and evidence room?

Good things the cops took care of this guy. I wouldn't want them to do anything like preventing people from discharging guns on Erie Street.

This is the kind of stuff that movies are made from.....

Bottom line, what a mess !!!!


CK

On one hand we have a frat cop car parked in a dangerous manner that is a real risk to peds and the public that is ignored by authorities and a dude who didn't pay his $1.90 fare that is dragged around by the nose like a common crim.

Its hard to know when to laugh or cry !

At least this explains why crime is so high in Hudson County- the police are busy arresting people for petit incidents like this instead of going after real criminals - robbers, mugger, killers, etc. I can just imagine all of the money that was spent processing this guy - going from city to city, the police's valuable time spent, etc. all for $1.90.

Oh my god - that is insane.

This guy must really fit right in over in Hoboken.

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I think this guy was the biggest problem... Hofer was naive and stubborn but the cop could have paid a little closer attention to the situation and just said "Dude, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that - you need to go down to the courthouse immediately and straighten this out... oh, and the government is cash only".


Mark.

The best way to implement change is suing.

What is a pain in the ass, is that you get locked up for a $1.90 offence, yet other crazy crap gets a slap on the wrist. Governments sure hate losing one cent !

An apology and order to keep jail cell clean

Saturday, September 20, 2008
By AMY SARA CLARK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The story of Gerhard Hofer, the German man who as a result of bad luck, unfortunate timing and inflexible regulations spent a night in jail after failing to buy a $1.90 ticket to ride the Light Rail, elicited apologies and promises of change this week from Hudson County officials.

Hudson County Assignment Judge Maurice Gallipoli, who oversees the Jersey City Municipal Court, sent Hofer, who lives in Hoboken, a letter of "sincere apology" stating that he hopes "all associated with the Jersey City Municipal Court will have learned a lesson."

"Bottom line: mistakes were made," Gallipoli wrote, adding he hopes Hofer "will be as forgiving of the mistakes acknowledged here as I am sincerely apologetic for those mistakes having occurred in the first place."

In June, Hofer was issued a summons in Jersey City for failing to pay his Light Rail fare. After trying unsuccessfully to get his court date postponed, Hofer missed his scheduled appearance while visiting Germany and was arrested after he returned to Hoboken.

After spending 17 hours in the Hudson County jail in Kearny, jail officials released him on the Friday afternoon before Labor Day and said he would have to walk to Jersey City to retrieve his wallet and keys. He made it back to Jersey City by borrowing $10 from employees at a nearby warehouse.

Jim Kennelly, a spokesman for Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise, said the jail's standard procedure is to offer stranded prisoners bus tickets. He also said the county is looking into centralizing bookings closer to the jail, which would allow released prisoners to get their belongings back immediately.

He said there is no appropriate space for bookings in the jail. As for the possibility of sending prisoners' property along with them to the facility, Kennelly said changing that procedure would be up to the police, not the county.

Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey noted that prisoners' belongings aren't locked in the property and evidence room until the day after an arrest and most prisoners are bailed out the same day.

Meanwhile, Hudson County Administrator Abe Antun sent an e-mail to prison officials instructing them to improve the sanitation in the holding cells with 24-hour, seven-days-a-week cleaning and to make sure to help released prisoners claim their property.

Skipping $1.90 fare sent him on a nightmare ride of his life
Friday, September 19, 2008
By AMY SARA CLARK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

It took just the right confluence of bad luck, unfortunate timing and inflexible regulations to cause a hapless German businessman to start his summer with an unpaid $1.90 Light Rail ticket and end it in jail.

But it was that combination - exacerbated perhaps by a smidgen of stubbornness on Gerhard Hofer's part and an equal measure of unhelpfulness from people he encountered - that caused the 40-year-old who moved to Hoboken from Germany in April to share a cell with three other men, a leaking toilet and a horde of flies.

"Nobody's done anything dramatically wrong. Technically, I think people followed the rules," said Hofer, a sales manager at a Jersey City company that imports herbal teas. "But the punishment was just too much in comparison to the actual offense."

The journey began on June 4 when Hofer lost a dollar to a broken ticket machine at the Ninth Street Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station in Hoboken.

"I didn't try the second machine. I was still fighting the first one when the train came, and I was already late for work," he said. "Sure enough, when I got off at Newport (in Jersey City), there were the traffic police."

Hofer tried to pay the $74 ticket online, but the site asked for a license plate number and he doesn't own a car. He next planned to pay in person. "But then I looked at the ticket and realized that in order to do that you have to plead guilty, and I didn't really feel guilty," he said.

So Hofer decided he'd throw himself on the mercy of the court, offering as his defense the lost dollar, the broken machine and an otherwise stellar ticket-payment record.

The ticket gave him a court date of June 20, which the court postponed to July 19, and then postponed again to Aug. 4, when he would be on vacation in Germany. He called the court for a postponement, but said he was told: "Just pay the fine and you won't have to come to court."

"But I want to go to court and present my case," Hofer said he told the woman, who then hung up.

Hofer sent a letter to the court asking for a postponement and left for Europe. On Aug. 28, he received a letter informing him of a warrant for his arrest.

"I thought I would go in the next day and sort it out, but then I worried the police would be out looking for me," he said.

Then as he walked outside to get a beer, the police drove up to answer a false alarm next door, as he later found out. So he asked the officer for advice on how best to deal with the warrant situation, he said, acknowledging, "Maybe I was as a little naive."

"(The officer) looked at me and said, 'If you make me aware of the fact that there's a warrant out for your arrest then I have to arrest you,'" Hofer said.

So, at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 28, Hofer was cuffed and arrested. After a long stop at the Hoboken police station, he was delivered to the Jersey City police, who, he said, found the situation quite funny.

"They said, 'I can't believe you got arrested for that,'" he said. "But once the proceedings had started, there was no way to stop it."

Hofer was asked if he had $250 cash to bail himself out. But he did not, and was not allowed to use a credit card or go to an ATM.

"Just having arrived from Germany, I didn't have anybody to call," he said.

He explained his story to several police officers, who were professional and polite, he said, but couldn't help him.

"We have zero wiggle room there," confirmed Jersey City Police Tom Chief. "If we release someone we would be in contempt of court."

Hofer was relieved of his wallet, keys, Blackberry, shoelaces, belt and other property, fingerprinted and photographed, and, after five hours in police custody, driven to the Hudson County jail in Kearny.

There he was offered another phone call and chance to post bail, but he still didn't have the cash. Then there was more processing and a change into prison clothes.

He was taken to his cell around 2:30 a.m. Friday, Aug. 29, he said.

"I was shocked. As I walked in there, I thought it can't be," he said. The cell had a toilet that was leaking, there were flies, and then there were the mattresses with suspicious brown stains.

"I sat down on a mattress and thought 'I'm not going to move, I'm not going to touch anything,'" he said. "But one of the other inmates looked up at me, and said, 'It's terrible, I know, but just try to get some sleep, so you're in shape to face the judge.'" So he did.

Later that morning, Hofer finally had his day in court - via video conference from the jail. In the end, he pleaded guilty.

"I would have pleaded guilty to anything just to get out of there," he said, "and put an end to this all."

The judge sentenced him to time served, waived the $74 and billed him $10 court fees. (And NJ Transit has since given him a $1 credit for the lost fare.)

After more waiting Hofer was released at 4:30 p.m. to the streets of Kearny, without a belt, shoelaces, or his wallet.

"I asked them how I would get back to Jersey City (to retrieve his belongings), and they said to walk," he said.

Luckily, the jail was across the street from a warehouse his company used, so he went there, introduced himself, and scored $10.

He arrived at the Jersey City police station at 6:30 p.m. and was told his property, including the keys to his apartment, was locked up until Tuesday morning due to the Labor Day holiday, he said.

He tried to explain that he would have to sleep on the street. "She said, 'Look, I'm not having this argument here, good-bye,'" he said.

"I just lost it," he said. "I punched a street sign in frustration, and a police car stopped."

And at that moment his luck turned.

Sgt. John Reo drove up in his police car and asked him what was wrong. After hearing Hofer's tale, Reo made some calls and found a retired police officer who still had a key to the East Precinct's property and evidence room. The officer, Dennis Carroll, drove to the precinct and gave Hofer back his possessions - and his faith in the kindness of strangers.