The Village of Great Neck Estates has dropped trespassing charges against a Mamaroneck atttorney who faced up to $2,500 in fines or 15 days in jail for parking in the restricted parking lot at Waterfront Park.
Mark Kosofsy had received a criminal trespassing summons on his car in April after he returned from the village’s nearby tennis academy.
Kosofsky said the warrant was nonsensical and outside the village’s jurisdiction.
“It was particularly ridiculous,” he said. “I would have paid the parking ticket.”
The charges against Kosofsky were dimissed by Great Neck Estates Village Justice Harry Burstein on Sept. 25 at the request, Kosofsky said, of the village prosecutor.
The problem was not the ticket itself, Kosofsky said, but the criminal nature of the charge – an approach he described as excessive and legally suspect.
“We put in a motion to dismiss saying that they had no jurisdiction over me because they were contending it was a criminal matter and the had never [identified] me,” he said. “The only time we tried to make an issue of this was when they said that I was subject to trespassing, criminal fines and outlandish criminal charges, and that I would have to show up on a Friday night in the summertime to address it.”
Kosofsky said the prosecutor recommended dismissal to Burstein after receiving the petition for dismissal.
Kosofsky, a civil attorney, was represented by his partner, criminal attorney Michael Palumbo.
Like other villages on the peninsula, Great Neck Estates restricts entrance to its parks. Its village code limits the use of parks and their facilities to authorized residents and their guests.
But the code does not make any reference to criminal charges for the violation of park rules.
Kosofsky told the Great Neck News in June that he saw a police officer leave the ticket, but did not immediately realize its significance.
It was only after he called the Village Court to inquire about paying the ticket that he was informed he had been issued a criminal summons, he said.
Having avoided conviction and a time-consuming court date, Kosofsky said his main objection to the charge was its legal overreach.
But he also had some advice for the village to avoid future problems.
“If they want to keep people out of the park, they should have a designated parking area for the tennis center,” he said.
