In an article published Friday morning in the Democrat and Chronicle, Monroe County Prosecutor Sandra Doorley acknowledged to D&C reporter Gary Craig that there was friction in her interaction with a Webster police officer during a a traffic stop Monday for speeding.
On Friday afternoon, based on a Freedom of Information Act request, the Webster Police Department released body-worn camera video of the officer, Cameron Crisafulli, and d other officers who responded to the scene.
It shows a very tense exchange with Doorley refusing to follow Officer Crisafulli’s orders and insulting her as she walked in and out of the garage of her home and at one point entering her home on Fallen Leaf Terrace at Webster, where the stop ended.
After Doorley swore at Crisafulli, he said, “I don’t know why you’re doing that to me,” pointing out that she should have stopped on Phillips Road, where the officer, with his emergency lights activated, attempted to pull. after clocking her doing 55 mph in a 35 mph zone around 5:30 p.m.
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Instead of stopping, Doorley continued to her residence about a half-mile away, in a subdivision off Phillips Road, because, she told Craig, there was less traffic there— down.
In the footage, when Crisafulli asks her why she didn’t stop, she responds, sounding exasperated: “Because I didn’t want to stop on Phillips Road at 5:30 p.m. »
She told Craig she called Webster Police Chief Dennis Kohlmeier from her car with Crisafulli behind her.
She said she wanted the chief to tell the officer who she was so he would know there was no possible danger to him if he didn’t stop immediately.
During her heated conversation with Crisafulli captured on video, she calls Kohlmeier again and says, “Can you please tell him to leave me alone?”
At one point, Doorley asks Crisafulli how she would have known he was trying to stop her and not someone else.
Because, he said, “I was right behind you.”
As the argument continues, he asks, “Why are you so opposed to what I’m doing?” I do my job. You say you are a prosecutor?
She replies: “I am THE DA… I am THE Monroe County DA.
“I understand that,” says Crisafulli, who eventually calls an on-site supervisor. “But that doesn’t give you the right to make a 55 in a 35.”
Doorley asks Crisafulli if he knows what she’s been dealing with all day and then tells her: three homicides in the city of Rochester.
She asks, “Do you think I really care if I go 20 miles over the speed limit?” »
At the end of the 26-minute video from Crisafulli’s body camera, Doorley, visibly calmer, accepts the ticket.
Failing to stop is an arrestable offense, but she was not arrested for it.
In a statement released Thursday, she wrote: “At 1 p.m. (Tuesday), I pleaded guilty and sent the ticket to Webster Municipal Court because I believe in accepting responsibility for my actions and that I do not I had no intention of using my position to receive a fine. advantage. No one, including your district attorney, is above the rule of law, even the traffic laws.
Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @MarciaGreenwood.
