Judge fired, fined for free popcorn

NEW YORK, June 30 (UPI) -- New York officials said a parking judge was fired and fined $2,500 for accepting free popcorn from a delivery driver whose tickets the judge had waived.

Officials said Alan Rubin, an administrative-law judge for the Finance Department since May 2004, was fired in June 2009 after he admitted to accepting six to eight bags of free popcorn from the delivery driver, who was not named, the previous year, the New York Post reported Wednesday.

Rubin agreed to pay the Conflicts of Interest Board a $2,500 fine.

Sources said Rubin was found out when he brought some of the popcorn to his office to share with colleagues.

"After adjudicating the delivery driver's parking tickets, I told the delivery driver that the invoice named a brand of popcorn that I liked," the New York Post quoted Rubin as saying in settlement papers.

"The delivery driver then offered to give me popcorn for free, in appreciation of my having dismissed the delivery driver's tickets," Rubin wrote.

"I gave two bags of the popcorn to my grandson and brought the rest to my office at (the) Parking Violations Bureau to share with my colleagues," he wrote.