Attorney: Towing operators are innocent
The attorney representing the operators of a Willard-based towing company charged by the county prosecutor this month with "stealing by deceit" in Springfield said his clients will plead not guilty and that media attention has "sullied" their "otherwise stellar" reputations.
Viper Bite Towing and Recovery, along with operators Ronnie Mansker, 38, of Willard, and Jerry Klekamp, 50, of Bolivar, were charged on Dec. 18 with stealing by deceit and peace disturbance — both misdemeanors, according to court documents.
Company representatives told owners of vehicles with expired tags that they had to pay a $150 fee to avoid their car being towed, according to charging documents.
"Although the filing of criminal charges is proof of absolutely nothing, the reputations of Mr. Mansker, Mr. Klekamp, and Viper Towing have been sullied in the public eye," said their attorney Adam Woody in a news release issued Wednesday.
Woody added, "They each plan to plead not guilty to the charges and look forward to their opportunity to explain the other side of the story."
On at least three occasions, vehicle owners saw Viper Bite Towing hooking up to their vehicles in a parking lot associated with businesses in a downtown shopping center at 401 S. Kimbrough Ave., according to court documents.
Authorities say employees of Viper Bite told owners of vehicles with expired tags that they had to pay a $150 fee to avoid their car being towed, court documents say.
In the news release, Woody said the operators of Viper Towing were engaging in a legal and widely practiced activity.
"In clearing the parking lot near the intersection of Kimbrough Avenue and Elm Street of illegal vehicles, Viper Bite simply engaged in a practice that is common throughout Springfield by many of the major towing companies," Woody said.
This echoed a comment Klekamp made to the News-Leader on Dec. 18. Referring to Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson, Klekamp said: "He needs to be filing charges against every towing company, because every towing company does it."
Patterson has said the practice Viper Towing was engaged in is, in fact, illegal.
In a news release from Dec. 18, Patterson said, "The public should be aware that there is no authority for a vehicle to be towed from a parking lot open to the public solely on expired license plates or state inspections."
Meanwhile, contrary to what Klekamp and Woody have said, several other prominent Springfield towing companies refuted the assertion that they or most salvage operations engage in the alleged practice that has landed Viper Towing in hot water with authorities.
"It was a little frustrating hearing from Viper Towing on the news and in the News-Leader that that is how all towing companies operate because that is not how it is," Laura Muller, a managing member of RPM Recovery, which does repossessions and has towing contracts with several downtown lot owners told the News-Leader on Dec. 19.
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