HollyMatkinBergen County, NJ – Dashcam footage showed the former chairwoman of the Ethics committee for Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Easter weekend as she tried to bully two Tenafly police officers after they stopped a car her adult daughter was traveling in (video below).
No explanation was given for Port Authority Commissioner Caren Turner’s abrupt resignation on April 20, but police released the dashcam video of the commissioner appointed by former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie shortly afterward.
“The Port Authority has zero tolerance for ethics violations,” Port Authority Spokesman Ben Branham told Politico.
“This is the basis of the tough, systematic integrity reforms the Port Authority has implemented over the past year. Immediately upon learning of allegations that Commissioner Turner violated the board’s newly-enacted Code of Ethics, an inspector general investigation was begun. The investigation revealed conduct that was profoundly disturbing. After Commissioner Turner became aware of the investigation, she resigned,” Branham said.
Turner, 60, previously served as a finance adviser to Hillary Clinton, FOX News reported.
The altercation between the former commissioner and police occurred after two Tenafly police officers stopped a vehicle on Route 90W in Bergen County, and found the car to be unregistered, NJ.com reported.
The commissioner’s adult daughter was a backseat passenger in the vehicle, the video showed.
Turner’s daughter called her to pick up the vehicle occupants after police notified the driver that his vehicle was going to be impounded.
But when Turner arrived at the scene, she demanded that the officers debrief her on what had occurred.
“You’re just here as a ride, ok?” one officer asked her.
“No, I’m not,” Turner responded. “I’m here as a concerned citizen, and friend of the mayor, and I’ve been in Tenafly for 20 years.”
She then demanded to know why the vehicle was pulled over, and was told to speak with the adult driver regarding the reason why he was stopped.
“No, no, no, no, no,” she told the officer. “I need to know.”
“You’re not involved here,” the officer reminded the entitled commissioner. “You’re picking them up.”
Turner then allegedly tried flashing her Port Authority badge to gain the officers’ compliance.
“We don’t need to see credentials,” the second officer told her.
“I am the commissioner of the Port Authority, and I’m heading up over 4,000 police officers, okay?” she said, before again resuming her demands.
When one officer respectfully attempted to address her as “Miss,” the entitled woman swiftly corrected him.
“No, don’t call me ‘Miss.’ I’m Commissioner. Thank you,” she scolded.
The officer again directed Turner to speak with the driver.
“This does not involve you, one percent,” he attempted to explain.
“It does,” she argued. “I’m also an attorney.”
Having made no headway with the first officer, Turner then turned to his partner.
“Why is it so difficult to just say why they were being pulled over, and why the car is being towed?”
The second officer told her that everything had already been explained to the driver, and that the matter did not involve her.
Turner argued that she “needed” to hear the officers’ explanations, then began telling the officers that some of the vehicle occupants were “Ph.D.” students at ivy-league schools.
She complained that the officers had interrupted her Easter weekend, and had “ruined it for a lot of people.”
“I’m asking you a question, which is not being answered,” Turner continued to argue.
“It doesn’t need to be answered,” the officer said calmly. “It’s irrelevant. You have no right to know what is going on.”
Turner then alleged that the officers did not have confidence in their reasoning for the stop.
“I will be in with the Commissioner of Police of Tenafly,” she told the officer, as she backed him towards his patrol vehicle. The officer directed her to step away from him, as her tirade continued.
“I’m very disappointed in the way the two of you are acting,” Turner eventually told the officers. “You cannot even tell me, a mother living in Tenafly for 20 years, with two kids who went through the school system, what the problem is.”
Turner went on to call the situation “shocking,” and told the officers they were “pathetic” and “a disappointment.”
The officers then urged Turner to leave the area.
“You may not tell me when to take my child,” Turner retorted. “You may shut the f**k up.”
Tenafly Police Chief Robert Chamberlain declined to comment further on the incident, and said he would allow the footage to speak for itself, NJ.com reported.
You can see the video from the scene below: