Disabled placard abusers targeted

Globe- He lives in one of Wellesley's most exclusive neighborhoods, owns a $1.8 million Nantucket vacation home, and has a small fleet of luxury cars at his disposal. But when Gerald Hamelburg drives downtown, he doesn't like to pay his way, according to investigators with the state inspector general's office.
The Boston lawyer, they say, uses his deceased mother's handicapped placard to park his Mercedes convertible, free of charge, at meters near the High Street firm that bears his name.

Hamelburg, who has two Mercedes vehicles, a Lexus, a BMW, and a Jeep registered at his address, was a target of the original probe, but kept eluding investigators, the inspector general's office said. Investigators observed him illegally using the placard about six times, but he was able to move the car before State Police arrived to ticket him, the office said.

This week, however, investigators cornered him. They said they found his silver Mercedes - with the Basketball Hall of Fame license plate BB 712 - parked at Franklin and Batterymarch streets. He was called out of his office and ordered to give up the placard. He was also given a $25 ticket for the unpaid meter and a $500 citation for allegedly misusing the placard, and was ordered to a hearing where he faces a 30-day license suspension.

According to an investigator's report, Hamelburg seemed unclear about what he had done wrong. "He denied that he was 'displaying' the placard," wrote the investigator, who videotaped this week's exchange, "and stated that it was merely 'hanging there.' He questioned why he was being sanctioned for the use this time, saying that he had used it 'half a dozen times' before that and 'no one' had ever had an issue with his use of the placard before. [The trooper] asked him why he believed that was an appropriate defense to his having committed a serious violation by using the placard illegally. Hamelburg had no response to his question."