In upstate New York, Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley failed to pull over for a routine traffic stop last week, driving all the way home and parking in her garage, instead. Over 20 minutes of shocking body camera footage of the incident have been released by the Webster Police Department, showing the DA to be uncooperative, entitled, and defiant.
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Doorley was driving 55 mph in a 35 mph zone on Phillips Road in Webster, New York, which she admits to in the footage. When the police attempted to pull her over for speeding, Doorley did not stop immediately. When the police officer continued to follow her, she called Webster Police Chief Dennis Kohlmeier to ask, “Can you please tell them to leave me alone?” and to inform him that she would speak to the officer at her house down the street instead of pulling over, as the law requires.
Once at her residence, Doorley refused to step outside her garage to speak with the officer, handed her cell phone to the officer to speak with the Chief of Police, and told the officer to “just go away.” When she was confronted about speeding, she responded, “I don’t really care,” showing a lack of concern for the law.
The scene continued to get more tense as Doorley proclaimed her position as “THE DA,” and fetched her badge from her car while calling the officer an “a–hole.” When the officer asked to see her driver’s license, she said that she had already shown it to him, and he responded by informing her that she had only flashed her badge at him, not providing a license. Despite the officer’s orders, Doorley stormed inside her house against his instructions.
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Throughout the interaction, the police officer stayed even-tempered, trying to balance the illegal and inappropriate conduct of the county’s DA with the fact that he must do his job. He issued a ticket but used his discretion to not place her under arrest for her refusal to pull over, and other interferences and obstructions.
On Tuesday, Doorley admitted guilt in municipal court and paid a fine.
In a statement, she said:
…because I believe in accepting responsibility for my actions and had no intention of using my position to receive a benefit.
Um, except for the part where she was on video saying the exact opposite; when the officer handed her the citation, she quipped that she wasn’t going to prosecute herself. In the video, she also alluded to the fact that the officer should have run her plates and not pulled her over based on the vehicle being a black SUV belonging to the Doorleys because she is the DA.
All nine members of the Rochester City Council signed a letter on Saturday, asking New York District Attorney Letitia James’ office to investigate Doorley’s conduct. The letter says, in part:
Such behavior undermines the credibility and integrity of our justice system and erodes public trust.
If New York’s justice system had any credibility and integrity to erode, the council would be correct in this assertion. But, as Americans watch the ongoing criminal trial of former President Donald Trump in Manhattan, and because Attorney General James ran her entire campaign based on a promise to indict Trump, there was no public trust to begin with.
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The largest problem with Doorley’s behavior is that it’s a tangible snapshot of the two-tiered justice system. Citizens know exactly what they are looking at: A system where those in power can violate the law with impunity, rendering it a justice-free tool to target and harm those without privilege or influence, or worse, an opponent threatening their grip on power.