parking ticket advice. help!

[feisty]

Bit of a parking ticket problem I'd like some help with please... to make a short story long...

Recently, I went to the wheelchair center for a meeting with my new DME (the manager of the location) and when we arrived we parked on the side of the building in a non-HC spot. The 2 HC spots at the facility are both directly in front of the door to the business which is located in a strip mall, both with their own cement graded cuts to access the shopping plaza. The area between the storefront and the street is minimal, and the lane separating all the other parking spots (facing the street and facing the storefront) is narrow, and since paratransit is often picking up and dropping off right at the door-we just decided to avoid the whole clusterfuck and park on the side.

Right before I was finished with my meeting with my DME, I had a question about car transfers in rigid chairs vs folding chairs. So the manager asked if we had come in a car- and we rolled the 2 types of chairs out to the walkway so I could see if there would be any difference in how far 'in' I could get the manual chair to the open door before starting to transfer... aaaaaaaaaaaanyway- My friend Minnie decided to pull her car around to the HC spot since it was now late afternoon and the lot was much calmer than earlier, both spots were open, and the WC center was getting ready to close anyway.

Now, I try to avoid parking in the HC spots with the spaces/lines next to them because I know that people with vans need them for their lifts, and both of these spaces had lines, but if I need to use it I will, and I did- so my friend pulled up into the space, hung my placard in her window, popped her hatchback (Pontiac Vibe) and opened her passenger door so we could see which style was easier to work with in and out of the car. When she pulled in, part of her car was parked on the lined sections, but as both sections provided their own access to the 'mall' and since we were all 3 in plain sight we didn't even think twice.

Needless to say... we finish our mojo, close up the car- we start rolling chairs back inside, last person to roll inside is me. Minnie grabs her keys from inside and as she's walking out the door she's getting a $435 ticket for parking on the lines. The manager even made a comment similar to "She's not really getting a ticket, is she?" The lady must have been pulling up as we were rolling in the door. The parking lady was actually a snot... but we chose not to argue, just to ask for advice from other sources.

I guess I'm just frustrated because I hardly ever use my placard unless I need to. Most of my car transfers happen in and out of a regular run of the mill parking spot. We didn't block anyone else access to the premises, the other HC spot was even open and in general, what are the rules for the lined areas? Also, is there any grey area to dispute this kind of ticket? I've sought advice from a cop friend of mine, and he suggested measuring the spaces because if they aren't up to spec they can get thrown out, but I'm pretty sure these are legit. I don't know if the WC Center is going to allow the Manager to write a letter or anything to verify that the car wasn't really left unattended...