PLANTATION, Fla. – Parking tickets handed out last year by Plantation police to those who parked along Old Hiatus Road to see the Hyatt family Christmas light display have been dismissed, attorney Sabrina Visram, of the GMV Law Group, told Local 10 News on Friday.
Some in the community told Local 10 that they believed the city was trying to get revenge on the Hyatt family after a judge threw out a lawsuit filed by the city, which claimed that the massive light display and the crowds it attracts were a nuisance.
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"We weren't there for 15 minutes, and a whole line of cars had tickets on them. (It) must have been 30 that we saw," Chris Keefe, who got a ticket after seeing the lights, said in December.
There are signs that say "no parking" on the road, but neighbors said those signs went up only after the Hyatts started their battle with the city and have never been enforced until last December.
Visram said her firm handled the tickets pro bono and said they have all been declared invalid.
The city was ordered earlier this year to pay councilmember Mark Hyatt and his wife, Kathy, $15,000 in litigation fees after its failed fight to stop the family's extravagant holiday display.
The city also intends to lower the Hyatts' code enforcement fines from $7,000 to $1,400.
Horace A. McHugh, Plantation's chief administrative officer, said the legal battle has cost the city more than $434,000.