What a racket.
The husband of a Westchester County state senator acknowledged he had a handicapped-parking permit in his car that he didn’t need after he was spotted vigorously playing tennis at a posh Mamaroneck club.
And it’s not the first time Martin Oppenheimer has had an issue over handicapped parking.
He caused a headache for his wife, Democratic state Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, five years ago, when he was caught parking in handicapped spots with no permit at his gym. He later said he hadn’t realized what the parking spaces’ “stripes” meant.
Oppenheimer – a lawyer who rarely practices but spent years at a major firm, Proskauer Rose – was seen recently playing a tennis game at the Beach Point Club, even as the four-year handicapped permit that he said his wife got him for a knee-replacement surgery last April dangled in his car.
A knee replacement typically qualifies only for a temporary permit of six months or less, according to Department of Motor Vehicle rules.
“I should take it out, and I will,” Oppenheimer said of the permit on his car, which bore a plate reading “NY Senate 18.”
Such plates are usually used by the office holders themselves. “I’ve got all kinds of outdated things in the window,” he said.
But he grew angry as a Post reporter asked about it, and he refused to put his wife – who was calling out instructions to him – on the phone, saying, “She has nothing to do with this . . . You’re just trying to get a luscious story.”
Her aides did not return repeated calls for comment.
Asked why he had a four-year permit, Oppenheimer said: “I don’t know what that was about, either. I did not get it, actually. My wife asked for it because I was in the hospital having my knee replaced.”
Oppenheimer insisted that he had “never abused it” and had stopped using it months ago to park “as a practical matter” because he’s “fine.”
Then he added: “Frankly, I don’t even know when I did use it . . . I’m not suggesting I didn’t, but it’s not something I’d use on a daily basis or a frequent basis.”
He called a Post reporter back to say his wife told him to say he couldn’t have misused the permit at his club because “there is no handicapped parking there.” Officials at the club said that was not the case.
The secretary to the police chief, who issued the permit, said she couldn’t immediately locate the application for it.