Upstate New York county legislator Jennifer Schwartz Berky just couldn’t get out of her own way during a May traffic stop, long-suppressed dash camera video shows.
Originally pulled over for doing 43mph in a 30mph zone in the town of Ulster by local officers, Berky turned the ‘routine traffic stop’ into a broadway drama.
The very polite officer explains this to her and she retorts that she was just keeping up with traffic. At this point, everything is going fairly normal.
Then she drops the line about being a county legislator, and things start to get weird.
Berky begins crying and explaining to the officer that she’s broke all while being unable to produce her drivers’ license or registration.
The officer then goes back to his vehicle and Berky gets out and starts wailing and keeling over – now with a phone in her hand. She claims to be having a panic attack but refuses an ambulance. She then blurts out “I have PTSD” while hyperventilating and telling the officer she’s going to challenge the ticket and questions why he singled her out.
The officer tries to calm her down and explain the ticket he’s written, but every time, she cuts him off before he can explain it.
She then tries to get the Sheriff on the line and says she wants to record it for the Sheriff. This is after the officer explained she was being recorded.
Berky continues to be a pain by calling someone to try and have a witness to the stop. The officer remains calm and professional and explains that he is with the town of Ulster, not the county sheriff.
When another officer arrives she tells them she doesn’t feel safe around them but the officer continues trying to explain it.
After several minutes of her cutting him off, he finally lets her know that the ticket he wrote was for a seatbelt violation, a lesser ticket with no points on her license. However she argues with him and says she’s going to challenge it and that it’s not the right charge.
Clearly getting a little annoyed with the Berky’s irrational behavior, the officer obliges and returns to his vehicle to write the speeding ticket.
When he returns, there’s more back and forth and Berky continuing to interrupt him and throw accusations at him.
He finally leaves with “Have a nice day.”
It’s no surprise that Berky’s attorney has long been fighting to keep the video from being released, but a repeated FOIA request was finally granted, according to The Daily Freeman.
Her attorney also argued that releasing the video before the November 7th election could be harmful to her bid for a second term as a county legislator. Shocking.
