Rental tied to P.J. Hairston gets 12 parking tickets

AP

A rental car driven by suspended North Carolina basketball player P.J. Hairston also had a dozen campus parking citations over a two-month period, according to records released by the university Friday.

Hairston was charged in May with speeding while driving the 2012 Camaro, which has a Virginia license plate. There were no citations for vehicles registered to Hairston and it's unclear if he was in possession of the rental car at the time of the parking violations. The vehicle was rented from Hertz by a felon facing pending drug charges, or a woman sharing the felon's home address, at the time of each citation.

The violations run from April 1 to May 28, according to records released by the school in response to a public records request by The Associated Press. Ten of them were issued while the car was rented from March 25 to April 15 under the name of Haydn Patrick "Fats" Thomas, whose name also appeared on rental records for the 2013 SUV that Hairston was driving on the night of his June arrest on a misdemeanor drug charge that was later dismissed.

The final two parking citations were issued while the car was rented from April 25 to June 17 under the name of Catinia Farrington, who shares Thomas' Durham address. Hairston was charged May 13 with driving 54 mph in a 45-mph zone in Durham in the car.

Three of the citations were issued while the Camaro was parked near the Smith Center and Hairston's dorm.

American Traffic Solutions, an Arizona-based company that handles unpaid parking violations for Hertz and other rental agencies, paid UNC $265 in a check dated May 30 to cover seven violations for the Camaro. Charles Territo, a spokesman for American Traffic Solutions, said Friday evening that the company then billed $685 — which included administrative fees and a fine — on June 18 to Thomas' credit card listed on rental records for the vehicle.

"Our goal is to ensure the Hertz Corporation isn't penalized for a violation received by one of its renters," Territo said.

Three citations were listed only as warnings without financial penalty. Two of the most recent violations for parking without a valid permit, carrying $40 fines, remain unpaid, according to the UNC Department of Public Safety's online database. Territo said payment on those tickets is pending.

In addition, a 2009 Porsche Cayenne registered to Farrington was twice cited for campus parking violations, once on April 19 and once on July 1, according to school records.

Hairston, 20, was suspended indefinitely from the team July 28, hours after state police pulled him over for driving 93 mph in a 65 mph zone — his third run-in with authorities since May. He was cited for speeding, and careless and reckless driving while driving a 2008 Acura owned by a friend, Randi Lee Furr.

Hairston was the Tar Heels leading scorer, averaging 14.6 points for the season. He announced in April that he would return for his junior season instead of entering the NBA draft.



