Port Authority commissioner swears at police officers
Dash cam: Port Authority commissioner Caren Turner swears at police officers during a routine traffic stop in Tenafly, New Jersey.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has formally censured a former commissioner who was caught on camera delivering an expletive-laced tirade to police officers during a traffic stop.
Caren Z. Turner, who was also a former financial adviser for Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, resigned recently as chief ethics officer for the bi-state agency that operates the New York City area's bridges, tunnels, ports and airports.
In a statement Wednesday, Turner says she wasn't seeking special treatment after a car carrying her daughter was stopped for an expired registration on March 31 in Tenafly, N.J.
Turner’s half-hearted apology implied that the fault did not entirely rest on her shoulders.
I let my emotions get the better of me and regret my tone toward the police officers and use of off-color language. For this, I apologize.
“I let my emotions get the better of me and regret my tone toward the police officers and use of off-color language. For this, I apologize,” Turner wrote.
But she added, “(A)t no point did I violate the Port Authority’s Code of Ethics or ask for special treatment for anyone involved, nor did I suggest, in any way, that I would use my position at the Port Authority to affect the outcome of the violations issued to the driver.”
But Port Authority Chairman Kevin O'Toole said Turner “clearly and unambiguously” violated the board’s code of ethics and that her actions “badly damaged” the agency’s reputation. He said he would have requested that Turner resign had she not done so voluntarily.
O’Toole said Thursday that he'd met with the chief of police in Tenafly, and was planning to meet with the two officers involved in the case.
Tenafly police Chief Robert Chamberlain said this week that messages of support for Officers Matthew Savitsky and Tom Casper have poured in from across the U.S.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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