New Jersey Assemblywoman Maria Rodriguez-Gregg got steamrolled by Mt. Laurel police, and I’m pretty damn ticked off about it.
The dashcam video of her April arrest was made public last Friday as a result of our bulldog of a reporter, David Foster, filing a public records request. In the edited 12-minute video, you see Rodriguez-Gregg go from victim to perp. She predictably gets angry at the police officers, and things end with her in handcuffs. It’s worth the watch.
What was she arrested for? Obstruction for failing to submit to a field sobriety test and for a DUI for marijuana. She was eventually taken to a hospital to have blood drawn, and she and her lawyer are on record as saying the result showed there was no marijuana in her system, and her lawyer has said there was some alcohol, but not enough for a DUI.
None of this should have happened.
Rodriguez-Gregg started out as the victim here. She was rear-ended. That’s why the cops were out there in the first place. The DUI charge reeks of overreach on the part of the police.
At the 2:55 mark of the video, a second officer – not the one seen interacting with her – asked the first officer (who states in this exchange he’s still “FTO,” which means he’s still field training), “You smell weed on her?”
The young officer’s answer? “I smelled something.”
The second officer then eggs on the first, saying “I think you should get another whiff,” to which the first officer replies, “OK.”
“I’m pretty sure it was weed,” the second officer says.
“All right,” says the first.
Already, the hairs on the back of my neck are raised. This looks, smells, and sounds like the police reaching for something that’s not there.
At the 4:10 mark of the video Rodriguez-Gregg – who up until this point has remained calm, despite the fact it’s the middle of the night and she was just in an accident – was asked by the officer about marijuana, and she agrees to a search of her car.
By the 4:35 mark, however, she’s changed her tune. He says she wants to contact her lawyer, and curses for the first time: “Are you f***ing kidding me?”
She immediately and repeatedly insisted there was no weed in her car, that she was smoking cigars earlier in the night. The officer was unswayed, and eventually the second officer came over, invoking New Jersey vs. Witt, a 2015 case where the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled police could execute a warrantless search of a car if they have probable cause.
The “probable cause” in this case being one officer’s guess on marijuana.
This scares the crap out of me. Forget about innocent until proven guilty; this video is explicit proof of the wide berth police officers have, and you know what? It’s far too wide.
Now – if Rodriguez-Gregg had nothing to hide, I suppose it would have been prudent for her to let the police do whatever it is they wanted to do.
But I know I wouldn’t have done that. I know I would’ve freaked the freak out. I have been victim – twice – to police overstepping their bounds on marijuana issues. I was innocent twice, for the record.
Rodriguez-Gregg – to my eyes, ears, and heart – was the victim of a overzealous policing. She should do whatever it takes to clear her name. (Assuming, of course, she’s innocent, which I’m confident she is.)
In between the April incident and the release the dash cam video, Rodriguez-Gregg announced she would not seek re-election to her Assembly seat. She says the incident did not play into her decision, but I don’t buy it.
This is not the way policing should be done.
Should Rodriguez-Gregg have cursed the officers out? No, of course not. Should she have pulled the “do you know who I am?” routine? It never works. But she wouldn’t have been doing either of those things if she wasn’t being accused of something she didn’t do in the first place.
Oh, and by the way: You think it would’ve gone this way if Rodriguez-Gregg was old and white, like most other New Jersey politicians? You think that cigar stench would’ve been confused for “marijuana smell?” No way, no chance.
One last thing: Police found no marijuana in her car during the search. But you know what they did find? A cigar.
Jeff Edelstein is a columnist for The Trentonian. He can be reached at jedelstein@trentonian.com, facebook.com/jeffreyedelstein and @jeffedelstein on Twitter.
