A man from Brooklyn, N.Y. paid a steep price for using his wife’s handicapped license plate in a designated handicapped spot.
Last week in Sumter County Court, 56-year-old Pietro Gozzi of Ocala was assessed $771 in fines and court costs after pleading no contest to charges of displaying a handicapped parking permit that belongs to another and refusal to sign a citation.
Gozzi became “immediately confrontational” during a traffic stop Dec. 14, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. A deputy had spotted a white 2012 GMC pickup parked in a handicapped parking stall at Lowe’s home improvement on U.S. Hwy. 441 in Lady Lake. A check revealed the handicapped plate on the truck was assigned to a female. There was no woman in the truck. Gozzi admitted the handicapped license plate belonged to his wife.
Also last year, a 39-year-old Wildwood woman was arrested after using her mother’s handicapped parking placard while she was parked at Wawa in Oxford. Her case is up for a status conference this week in Sumter County Court.
