Ex-West Bloomfield Cop Sentenced to 60 Days in Ticket-Fixing Case

PONTIAC — A former officer and a Southfield man charged in a  were sentenced to jail Tuesday.

Jeffrey Scott Pindzia of Canton, a 17-year veteran of the police department who shortly after charges of misconduct in office and conspiracy to commit misconduct, was sentenced to 60 days jail and two years probation. 

Pindzia had been relieved of duty by the West Bloomfield Police as of March 29, when the department announced it had begun an internal investigation into allegations of a two-man ticket-fixing scheme between Pindzia and co-defendant Rudi Salim Gammo.

Gammo was sentenced to one year of jail and five years probation on one count of conspiracy to commit misconduct.

The incident was seen as "aberration" to Pindzia's defense attorney Mitchell Ribitwer, who had told Judge Leo Bowman that he was attempting for Pindzia to avoid jail time. Pindzia has an otherwise clean record, Ribitwer said.

, West Bloomfield officer Marcus Kang testified that on Dec. 15, 2010, that he was told by Shaun Jonna, the owner of the Shell gas station on 2207 Orchard Lake Rd., that his brother Tommy Jonna had become involved in the alleged scheme with Pindzia and Gammo.

Kang testified that Pindzia initially denied the allegation before admitting he would waive the tickets in exchange for some sort of monetary compensation.

Officers can and do waive tickets, Bowman said, but, "It's not in same realm that an officer exercising their discretion ... as an officer saying, I will take $2,500 to dismiss an otherwise valid ticket."