Print
Oct 18, 2007 10:00 pm US/Eastern
Constable Loses Power After Ticket Flap
NARBETH, Pa. (CBS 3) ―
-
-
A constable walked into the Sport Chrysler Dealership in Narberth, handcuffed Dennis Crilly in the busy showroom and told him he was being put in jail.
CBS
A deputy constable in Montgomery County was temporarily stripped of his powers after he was caught on tape handcuffing a local businessman over a $10 parking ticket.
The bizarre incident played out in front of customers and employees at Sport Chrysler Dealership in Narberth.
The general sales manager, Dennis Crilly, was placed in handcuffs over a $10 parking ticket that was not even his.
Deputy Constable Steven Sokoloff told Crilly he owed $150 for an unpaid $10 parking ticket in Narberth last May and that he was going to jail.
The only problem was that Crilly never got a parking ticket last May in Narberth, or anywhere else. The ticket had been issued to a customer who happened to purchase her car months earlier at the dealership.
"It was somebody else's parking ticket, it had nothing to do with us," Crilly explained.
Crilly and his fellow workers called local police who eventually got the constable to take off the cuffs, but not before dozens of customers in the showroom for a big sale, headed for the exits.
Finally, after 40 minutes, Crilly, a community leader with close ties to neighbors and local police, was finally released.
When asked why he had Crilly handcuffed for so long, Sokoloff said, "Because he wanted to be handcuffed for 40 minutes."
District Attorney Bruce Castor has launched a criminal investigation into the incident.
Sokoloff responded to word of the investigation saying, "The district attorney is running for office. He never worked so hard as he's working now that he's running for office."
Castor, a 22-year veteran prosecutor, responded.
"That is absolutely ridiculous. What we have here is a person, who is a member of our community, who has complained to the district attorney that he was improperly treated by law enforcement," he said.
There will be hearing in the next five days to see if the order to remove Sokoloff's power will be made permanent.
"After the district attorney has finished his investigation, we will make any determination as to whether or not my client's civil rights have been violated," Crilly's attorney Sean Cullen said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
