A New York district attorney refused to stop when a cop tried to pull her over for speeding, instead driving back to her house to call the chief of police to complain that she “didn’t feel like stopping” and demanded officers “leave me alone.”
Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley has faced a massive outpouring of backlash following the Town of Webster’s release of police body camera footage of her dramatics on Monday.
While she admitted to driving 55 mph in a 35 mph zone in a Thursday statement obtained by 13ABC, she justified her refusal to pull over by saying her house was just “down the street.”
When the officer informed her that she was speeding 20 mph over the limit, the footage showed Doorley snapping back with “I don’t really care.”
“I didn’t feel like stopping.” Arrogant New York District Attorney Sandra Doorley refuses to be pulled over by police for speeding. pic.twitter.com/Ljk80BQpGk
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) April 27, 2024
She then could be heard asking Webster Chief of Police Dennis Kohlmeier over the phone: “Can you please tell them to leave me alone?”
Doorley refused to step out of her garage when the officer asked, prompting him to join her inside.
While she initially claimed that she did not see the cop’s lights or hear the sirens, she later changed her story to just not thinking she should be pulled over.
The officer tried to explain that he was just doing his job and that Doorley “knows better” than to ignore police orders, but she dismissively said, “I know the law better than you.”
“Why is it you’re so against me? I’m doing my job. You say you’re a DA?” the officer asked her at one point.
“I am the DA,” Doorley replied, getting her badge out of her SUV as she called him an “asshole.”
When asked why she was going so fast, she said she “didn’t feel like stopping on Phillips Road at 5:30,” to which the officer replied, “That’s not your choice. You know that.”
“What do you want us to do, not do our jobs because it’s you?” he asked the district attorney.
She dismissively told him to just write her a ticket, but he pointed out that refusing to stop is “an arrestable offense.”
“You know this,” he again reminded her, addressing her by her first name.
She justified the mistake by saying she had a “really bad day” and had to deal with “three murders in the city.”
Her social media profiles have since been inundated with people calling her out on her bad behavior.
“Glad that if I travel to Rochester NY I don’t have to follow the laws because ‘I don’t feel like it,’” wrote one X user.
Glad that if I travel to Rochester NY I don’t have to follow the laws because “I don’t feel like it”
— Nate M (@natemcg13) April 27, 2024
“Can you publish the police chief’s number so we can call if we are pulled over?” asked another commenter. “Only fair, no?”
Can you publish the police chief’s number so we can call if we are pulled over? Only fair no?
— Mark C Schulze (@MCSchulze) April 27, 2024
In a statement following the release of the footage, Doorley said, “Nobody, including your district attorney, is above the rule of law, even traffic laws.”
“Anybody who knows me understands without a doubt that I have dedicated my entire 33-year career to the safety of this community,” the DA said. “My work to ensure the safety and respect of law enforcement is well-proven time and time again. I stand by my work and stand by my commitment to the public safety of Monroe County.”
Doorley added that she pleaded to the traffic offense on Tuesday and “sent the ticket to the Webster Town Court because I believe in accepting responsibility for my actions and had no intention of using my position to receive a benefit.”