NYC Pink Summons - Key in Ignition

[angelny]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York

Hi everyone. So my husband got a pink summons today for violation of 10-111 of the Admin Code. The description of criminal court offense is "Key in ignition, motor vehicle on." He ran into a deli to buy milk and left the car on and double parked.

I googled this admin code and it says:
10-111 Locks on motor vehicles. a. It shall be unlawful for any
person driving or in charge of a motor vehicle to permit it to stand
unattended for more than three minutes on the streets or thoroughfares
of the city, without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition and
removing the key.
b. Violations. Any person who violates the provisions of this section,
upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not more than
five dollars or imprisonment not to exceed two days, or both.

Does this mean he could go to jail for this for 2 days? Also, he is applying for citizenship next year and we are very concerned about how this will affect him. Will he have a criminal record if we plead guilty? Should we get a lawyer for this?

Also, will this affect our car insurance in anyway or give him points? Does this have anything to do with the DMV?

Finally, the address at the top is completely wrong, and his name is spelled wrong. I'm not trying to get out of the ticket, but I am concerned that any correspondence we get regarding the ticket will go to the wrong address. Is there any way to correct this before the court date?

Thank you very much

 

[Alex23]

There is a reason for laws like this, but they are rarely enforced. Your husband must have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. He won't go to jail. However, learning the rules of the road would be a good idea at this point.

 

[donkort1]

He won't get a criminal record

There is a reason for laws like this, but they are rarely enforced. Your husband must have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. He won't go to jail. However, learning the rules of the road would be a good idea at this point.

Hi there,

AC 10-111 is a violation. He definitely won't go to jail; he might even get the ticket dismissed with an explanation. He definitely won't get a criminal record as a result of this ticket, thereby threatening his citizenship possibilities. However, HE MUST APPEAR IN COURT ON THE DATE INDICATED ON THE TICKET--otherwise, a bench warrant will be issued. It might affect his citizenship chances if he has a bench warrant.

 

[You Are Guilty]

I don't know how long Google has been around, but the language it quotes is way outdated. Here's the current version:

§ 10-111 Unattended vehicles. a. It shall be unlawful for any person
driving or in charge of a motor vehicle to permit it to stand unattended
on the streets or thoroughfares of the city, without first stopping the
engine, locking the ignition and, where the ignition is locked or
unlocked by a key or other device, removing such key or other device.
b. Violations. Any person who violates the provisions of this section,
upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by [highlight]a fine of two hundred
fifty dollars or imprisonment not to exceed two days, or both[/highlight]. Whenever
a police officer shall find a motor vehicle standing in violation of
this provision, the officer may stop the engine and/or remove the
ignition key or device therefrom and, in the event that the owner or
operator thereof is not present, shall deliver the ignition key or
device to the nearest patrol precinct station house within one hour
after removing same to be held for and returned to such owner or
operator. In the event the key or device is so delivered to a station
house, the officer shall attach to the vehicle a tag stating where the
ignition key or device may be reclaimed.
c. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any person
driving or in charge of a utility vehicle regulated by the New York
state public service commission when the engine is used to operate a
processing device and the wheels on the vehicle are chocked and an
emergency brake is applied to secure the vehicle in place.

Early in '09, someone stole a car which was left running with the keys in it and promptly ran over and killed two kids. Since then, there has been a crackdown on leaving a running car unattended. Expect the actual fine imposed to be int he $100 range and jail is very, very unlikely. And as noted, this is a "violation" which is specifically not a crime in NY, so it should not affect immigration status.

 

[angelny]

Thank you all for the information. My next question is, will this affect his driving record, in terms of points on his license? Will our insurance company find out about this?

I have called a few lawyers and so far no one really understand this summons. I guess a traffic lawyer might be best?

 

[donkort]

Thank you all for the information. My next question is, will this affect his driving record, in terms of points on his license? Will our insurance company find out about this?

I have called a few lawyers and so far no one really understand this summons. I guess a traffic lawyer might be best?

Hello there,

Correct me if I'm wrong, experts, but:

Since AC 10-111 is an Administrative Code violation, it is not under the jurisdiction of the NY State Department of Motor Vehicles. An example of another AC law is: AC 204.53 - Unlicensed Vending. Most AC laws are not related to driving. VTL violations (e.g., VTL 119.23 - Driving While Intoxicated) are under the jurisdiction of the DMV. Therefore, I would say that the above is not a "moving violation" which would cause one to pick up two or more points, and it wouldn't affect one's auto insurance.

 

[HighwayMan]

This is NOT a moving violation and carries no points - and no chance of jail.

BTW there will be no bench warrant for no appearance here. NYC Summons Appearance Part (SAP) warrants do not get put into anything other than the NYC system, but that's good enough to get locked up if you get stopped by NYPD, so make sure he shows up.

 

[donkort1]

I believe it's almost like a formalized bench warrant--It's called a SAP warrant (SAP means, basically, "Summons Part"). Like HighwayMan stated, it's not put in the state system as a bench warrant (I should have known that!)

I see people being bought in on SAP warrants all the time. If a cop stops you for any reason, he would go into his system to search for "hits"--and if he doesn't show up to court on the summons, that would create one of the "hits" which would earn him a night in jail (or, if he's lucky, and a court part is open, and the clerk's in a good mood, the warrant could be taken care of the same day in that part). Also, if he were arrested on a misdemeanor or violation other than the summons in question, he would not be eligible for a Desk Appearance Ticket because of the "hit," and he would be held in the pens until arraignment the next day (or perhaps the day after).

 

[HighwayMan]

NYPD stopped issuing DATs for the most part a few years ago. I don't think that's changed.