Mayor Michael Nutter.
Credit: Rikard Larma / Metro
During testimony at the federal trial of several former judges and one businessman alleged to have participated in illegal “ticket-fixing” activities for the connected and wealthy at Philadelphia Traffic Court, one witness testified to receiving one such request several years ago from the office of Councilman Michael Nutter, before Nutter was elected mayor.
Nutter’s office denied that any such activity occurred in a statement today.
“City Councilman Michael Nutter never asked a Traffic Court employee to dismiss a traffic ticket nor did he instruct his staff to seek that,” Mayor Nutter’s press secretary Mark McDonald told the Daily News in a statement.
Former Traffic Court employee Christopher Waters was reportedly testifying at the federal trial when he stated that one of the many offices he received a ticket-fixing request, known to insiders as a “consideration,” was Councilman Nutter’s office.
Nutter was a 4th district Councilman from 1991 to 2006.
No further details about who specifically made the request were reported from Waters’ testimony.
Six other former judges and a local businessman face wire and mail fraud charges for the alleged corruption revealed by an FBI raid in September 2011.
Traffic Court was later dissolved by the legislature and is now operated as a division of the Court of Common Pleas.
Three judges and one businessman charged in the case pleaded guilty prior to trial beginning.
