reserved for the handicapped at the outlet mall here in
Dobbs. Mr. Alito is not physically disabled and he does
not possess a handicap permit. The ticketing officer
called for a tow truck, which impounded his car. This is
Mr. Alito’s second ticket for this infraction.”
With appropriate gravity, I asked, “And is the ticket-
ing officer in court?”
86
HARD ROW
“She is, Your Honor. I call Dr. Linda Allred to the
stand.”
“Huh?” said Alito as Allred steered her motorized
chair over to a position in front of the witness seat,
which was one step above floor level. “She’s the one
who gave me a ticket? She’s no police officer.”
“You’ll have your chance to speak, Mr. Alito,” I told
him. “The witness may swear from her own seat.”
The bailiff handed her the Bible and my clerk swore
her in.
Dr. Allred is a dumpling of a woman with short
straight gray hair parted high on the left and piercing
eyes that usually cast jaundiced looks over the top of her
glasses. Although her doctorate is in psychology and she
teaches statistical analysis on the college level, she lives
in Dobbs and in her heart of hearts, she’s Dirty Harry.
Or maybe I should say Betty Friedan because a lot of
her work is rooted in women’s issues.
Her particular pet peeve, however, is able-bodied
drivers who park in spaces reserved for those with im-
paired mobility. Any time she spots one, she writes up a
ticket, something that she’s officially allowed to do, as
Kevin’s next question made clear.
“Dr. Allred, are you a sworn law officer?”
“No, Mr. Foster, but I was made a special deputy and
given ticket-writing authority by Sheriff Bowman Poole
and I try not to abuse it.”
“Would you describe what happened on the twenty-
third of December?”
“Certainly.” She took a small laptop computer from a
pocket on the side of her chair and opened it to a screen
full of photographs. “On the afternoon of December
87
MARGARET MARON
twenty-third, a friend and I were finishing up our
Christmas shopping at the outlet mall. I was just get-
ting out of my van when Mr. Alito pulled into the only
empty slot. It was directly in front of ours. I immedi-
ately noticed that his car did not display a handicap tag
on the rearview mirror, so I took out my camera and
