No Free Parking For ALJ

From the Indianapolis Star:

The meter always read "expired." But the champagne-colored Toyota sedan never seemed to get a ticket.

A placard on the dashboard said simply "federal judge official business." No name. No authorizing signature. No date. No contact information. Nothing to suggest the car's owner had special permission not to feed the meter.

No tickets were ever issued, though, because until October there were so many different parking passes in circulation Downtown that meter enforcers could not verify whether the permit was legitimate.

It wasn't.

After a bit of digging, it turns out the car belongs to administrative law judge Reinhardt F. Korte, who is one of 13 administrative law judges assigned to Indianapolis by the Social Security Administration to hear disability cases.

SSA spokeswoman Carmen Moreno said neither Korte nor any of the other dozen administrative law judges were authorized to get free parking. They also aren't authorized to use a pass.

Korte, 63, said through Indianapolis attorney John Forbes that he acquired the permit from a now-retired judge, William Vaughn, sometime around 2006 and assumed it was OK to use. After The Star's inquiry, Korte called the Office of Inspector General to inquire himself, Forbes said, and stopped using the pass.

Attempts to reach Vaughn were unsuccessful.

"We hold our employees to a high standard of conduct,'' Moreno said, "and are disappointed with the actions of this individual."

Moreno said the agency was looking into Korte's actions. She said she couldn't discuss the results of any investigation because of privacy laws.