Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz to Democrat Leadership: Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

For Immediate Release
July 13, 2010

Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz to Democrat Leadership: Gentlemen,

Start Your Engines!

New York State Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) issued the following statement in response to reports of Senator Eric Schneiderman’s hit and run incident earlier this evening. Senator Schneiderman’s staff member/driver was Rachel Kagan, the niece of US Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.

“Why has there been no arrest in this crime committed by Senator Eric Schneiderman’s driver? If I were to permit my staff person to commit a hit and run or better yet, if Senator Pedro Espada had permitted his staff person to leave the scene of a car accident, would neither of us be arrested?

Will Eric Schneiderman come forward and answer the following questions that would be posed to any DWB who just crashed their car into a parked car: “When was the last time you had anything to drink and were you taking any drugs?” Or was this situation much simpler to understand: the Senator was just in a hurry and didn’t want his staff member to delay him by stopping?

Under the property damage section of New York State’s Vehicle and Traffic law, § 600. Leaving  scene  of  an  incident without reporting. 1. Property   damage. a. Any person operating a motor vehicle who, knowing  or  having   cause to know that damage has been caused to the real property or to the   personal property … due to an incident   involving  the  motor  vehicle  operated  by  such  person shall, before   leaving the place where the damage occurred, stop, exhibit  his  or  her   license  and  insurance  identification card for such vehicle … in case  the person sustaining the damage is not present at the place where the damage occurred then he or she shall report  the  same  as  soon  as   physically able to the nearest police station, or judicial officer.

The penalty for this offense is a fine of $250 and/or imprisonment of up to 15 days.  Will justice be served?

I call upon my colleagues in the New York State Senate to immediately form a Committee and investigate Senator Eric Schneiderman’s criminal activity of flagrantly authorizing, endorsing or encouraging his staffer to leave the scene of an accident.

I call upon Charlie King and Andrew Cuomo to start the process to remove Eric Schneiderman from the Democratic Party. It is a shame that the Democrats could rally behind someone who has such a flagrant disregard for the law.

Senator Schneiderman can no longer fool us with his self-righteous cowboy act who went after Hiram Monserrate.  He’s not Mr. Clean – he’s Mr. Slick!”

##