Couple Pay Reduced Fine for Removing Manhole Cover Last Summer

The husband and wife that were fined $1,500 each for removing a manhole cover during a rainstorm last summer were both ordered to pay one-third of the original citation amount last month.

Michael Payne, 47, and Sally Heiple-Payne, 42, each received a municipal citation for $1,500 from the Whitefish Bay Police Department after they admitted to removing a manhole cover in the early morning hours of Aug. 21.

The couple later requested the case be transferred to Brown Deer Municipal Court, where in January Judge David M. Victor ordered the couple to pay $500 each to the court by March 25.

Whitefish Bay Village Attorney Christopher Jaekels said the village is enforcing rules from MMSD and local ordinances.

According to a Sept. 14 complaint from MMSD, the removal of the manhole cover is a violation of the village’s plumbing and drainage code. A section of the code states, “no person shall permit any rain or surface water to enter into any sanitary sewer of the Village of Whitefish Bay or of the Metropolitan Sewerage District of Milwaukee County."

The complaint states the couple also violated a MMSD rule that says “no public safety official, other agent of a governmental unit or any other person may open a sanitary sewer manhole cover in a flooded street or take any other action that drains flooded areas into sanitary sewers."

According to the police report, Heiple-Payne approached a police officer that night and told him she and her husband removed a manhole cover so the water would drain faster. Earlier that night, Payne left a telephone message with Village President Kathleen Pritchard saying he was going to take matters into his own hands.

The couple’s attorney, Gregory Rothstein, did not return phone calls seeking comment, and the couple did not speak with officers during the investigation.