Ex-Court Officer Charged With Fixing Tickets

The former administrator of the Santa Anita Municipal Court was charged Monday with misdemeanor conspiracy to obstruct justice for allegedly dismissing 73 traffic tickets over a one-year period without consulting a judge.

Ralph Weldon, 34, resigned his $42,000-a-year administrative post last November, two months after investigators began looking into allegations of ticket fixing at the tiny Monrovia-based courthouse, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Healey said.

Healey said there is no evidence that Weldon, who had worked in the courthouse for 17 years, made any money from the alleged scheme.

“It seems he was doing this as a favor for his friends and acquaintances,” the prosecutor said. “I had the personal impression after talking with him that he wanted to impress his friends with his power and influence.”

Computer System

Healey said that all Weldon needed to do to dismiss a ticket was to make an entry in the court’s computer system and then destroy the court’s record of the violation. Auditors were able to trace the dismissals to Weldon because he used his employee number to get into the computer system.

Weldon, who is to be arraigned today in Los Angeles Municipal Court, faces a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $10,000 fine if convicted.

Healey said investigators are questioning one possible participant in the alleged scheme, who may have been responsible for taking tickets to Weldon. But, the prosecutor added, “there’s no one else in the courthouse that’s a suspect at this time.”

All of the citations were for moving violations and no individual had more than three dismissed, Healey said.