Call Kurtis

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― The peace and quiet of Steve Lillie's Oakdale neighborhood is about as removed from Los Angeles as you can get. In April, he got entangled in a battle with the big City of L.A. when a red light ticket for $159 showed up in his country mailbox.

Kurtis asked, "How long has it been since you've been to Los Angeles?" "7 years," Lillie answered.

The ticket says he rolled a red light 322-miles from his home making a right turn at an intersection in Downtown Los Angeles. Right away he spotted several problems on the ticket.

It wasn't him photographed driving. It wasn't his car, nor did it have his license plates. The car is a Honda Sedan and Steve drives a Kia SUV.

When he called to fight the ticket, both the red light enforcement folks in Los Angeles and the DMV assured him, DMV records show the plates photographed are tied to his Kia.

His license and title prove his car has different plates.

Four months and two collection notices later, the L.A. court system is threatening to take away his drivers license, garnish his wages, even put a lien against his home if he doesn't pay the fine which has now ballooned to $459.

"It feels more like a joke than anything," Lillie told Kurtis.

Call Kurtis has been following bogus L.A. area tickets written to Northern Californians for the past two years. One reason we've learned, officers are transposing numbers and letters, mixing up 1's and I's.

The L.A. department of transportation says there's another reason.

"One thing I've learned in the past two years is working with DMV, there are inconsistencies in some of the information we receive," said Robert Andalon with the City of L.A. "They have more than one database they're using."

Right after that interview this summer, we took Andalon's concerns and Steve's red light ticket issue to the DMV's state headquarters.

Spokesperson Jan Mendoza told Kurtis it's not the DMV's fault these tickets are going out to the wrong people. She put square blame on Los Angeles.

"Guess what? They weren't looking at the right record," she told Kurtis.

Mendoza said when the City of L.A. accessed the DMV database to figure out where to mail this red light ticket, they chose to get into the database using the wrong code -- one that only pulls up a short outdated record, one that incorrectly tied the plates seen in the photo to Steve's SUV.

"It didn't quite give the whole picture," Mendoza said. "It only gave half the history."

Mendoza said local agencies don't like using the correct code, that pulls up the complete record because it requires workers to scroll through a long report to find the most up to date information. "It's not easy. It fills up screen after screen. It's a little cumbersome."

Kurtis asked, "Why not just get rid of the old code?" Mendoza responded, "I think they're working on that."

Shortly after that interview, the DMV seemed to change its story. CBS13 found out about it, after reading a memo Jean Shiomoto, the Deputy Director of Communication Programs Division sent to all 780 agencies that write tickets in California.

It doesn't blame them for using a wrong code at all. Instead, it acknowledges the problem may actually be with the DMV.

The memo dated September 8th, 2008 reads the DMV is aware of some "inconsistent results" with the codes in it's database and is "researching the cause."

Turns out the City of L.A. didn't use the wrong code after all. The DMV's tale of two codes and lazy local workers was not true.

"Why did the story change from your office," Kurtis asked the DMV's head spokesperson Mike Marando. "When the memo went out in September, we identified the problem and we're making enhancements and moving forward to fix it," Marando said.

Kurtis asked if we were lied to in our August interview. Marando said no. He did admit his office was technically wrong with their explanation in August, and the Steve Lillie issue was in fact the DMV's fault.

"It was a misunderstanding," Marando said.

His office later told us, the DMV database does in fact have two codes. The "shorter" code which local jurisdictions are properly using does not have all the information the ticket writing agency needs to determine if they're sending the ticket to the correct person. It only includes the last known owner and address tied to a license plate. It doesn't include a vehicle's make, year, VIN, or any notations that would show the license plate is no longer on that particular car.

The DMV admits a mistake was made three years ago when the DMV sent out the wrong license plates to Steve Lillie's Kia. His late mother in law, who once owned the car was mailed new plates, and a notation was made in the DMV Database, but that notation only comes up when you access the long complete record.

When the City of L.A. accessed the record using the "short" code, there was no notation the plates were no longer tied to Lillie's car. Although the DMV originally told us those plates were later reassigned; most likely to the car in the Red Light Photo; they now tell us the plates were never reassigned and they have no idea how the plates ended up on the car in the picture.

"It might have been easier to pay the $159," Lillie told Kurtis.

After months of aggravation, Call Kurtis helped Steve get his ticket dropped.

But from his slice of serenity just outside Oakdale, he says being bullied by bureaucracy just confirms why he's never had much faith in the system.

"They need help. They need some help."

On behalf of the DMV, Marando apologized to Steve Lillie.

After our investigation, the DMV admits it needs to make changes to its database so local ticket writing agencies have the best updated information on their screen before mailing out tickets.

The agency is in the process of updating its system.

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