Word to the wise: no matter who you are, no matter what you do, no matter who your father, mother, brother, or uncle is, no matter where in society you are, NO ONE likes to hear the words "Do you know who I am?", ESPECIALLY A COP.

Read it all:

Cop: Morrell racing down I-10

Councilwoman near 100 mph, trooper says

Thursday, April 05, 2007

 

By Brendan McCarthy

Pulled over by State Police after barreling down Interstate 10 at close to 100 mph with a blue light flashing, New Orleans Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell yelled at a state trooper: "Do you know who I am? . . . What the ###### are you stopping me for?"

 

State Police reported those details and others of the February encounter with the councilwoman in several pages of internal reports and memos. Hedge-Morrell, in a taxpayer-financed sport utility vehicle equipped with flashing lights, also had been pulled over by another state trooper in a January incident, the documents report.

 

On Feb. 26 just before 9 a.m., after getting a report of an SUV traveling at high speed and on the shoulder, the state trooper pulled the vehicle over and asked the driver to step out onto the roadway, according to internal State Police memos. She refused.

 

"At this time she yelled at me, 'Do you know who I am?,' " Trooper Anthony Calagna wrote in a memo.

 

"She proceeded to exclaim to me that she had the authority to 'do what I wanted' and that she had a badge and was late for a meeting," the report reads.

 

A short time later, a supervisor called to the scene by the trooper decided to let Hedge-Morrell proceed to New Orleans. Hedge-Morrell, a City Council member since 2005, said Wednesday that she rarely uses the flashing lights while traveling on the highway shoulder.

 

"Normally, I have a driver," she said. "This was just an incident, a solitary incident, in which I was late for a meeting."

 

After hearing excerpts of the State Police reports, Hedge-Morrell said the trooper mischaracterized their interaction.

 

"We were out standing in traffic," she said. "My voice was loud, I had to be heard. Anyone who knows me, knows I don't swear. I don't know why he wrote that."

 

Not the first time

 

After the February traffic stop, another trooper wrote a memo regarding a similar stop on Jan. 19.

 

Hedge-Morrell told him she was late for a meeting, according to records. The trooper made a note of the stop on a business card and brought the incident to his supervisor after hearing of the second incident.

 

Although state law prohibits anyone but law enforcement officers from speeding and using flashing lights, State Police did not issue Hedge-Morrell a citation. According to State Police, a trooper has discretion over writing tickets. On Wednesday, Morrell said she still believes troopers should not have detained her.

 

"I was trying to get to the meeting, and he couldn't explain to me why he was detaining me any further," she said. "To this day, I don't know why he gave me the warning. I was late for a meeting."

 

She said she regularly travels back and forth from New Orleans to her farm in Prairieville and sometimes stays in Baton Rouge and Donaldsonville. Hedge-Morrell and her husband, Clerk of Criminal Court Arthur Morrell, are living out of town while they finish repairs on their flooded Gentilly home.

 

'No one is above the law'

 

The traffic stop prompted a series of internal reports and chatter among the State Police elite.

 

"No officer likes to hear, 'Do you know who I am?' " said State Police spokesman Lt. Lawrence McLeary. "We don't like to hear people imply they are above the law. No one is above the law."

 

McLeary said that if Hedge-Morrell does have authority to use such a light in Orleans Parish, that benefit ends at the parish line. Hedge-Morrell said she was commissioned by the Orleans Parish Civil Sheriff's Office and owns a badge.

 

"The lights are there for a reason," she said. "I'll leave it to my driver to decide when it should be used."

That driver, Civil Sheriff's Deputy Henry Mitchell, told State Police he advised Hedge-Morrell not to use the blue lights when driving, according to an official review of the incident by State Police Troop B commander Capt. Ken Curlee.

 

"Deputy Mitchell advised me he is Ms. Morel's (sic) assigned council driver and he has asked her in the past not to use the blue light when she is traveling out of town," Curlee wrote.

 

It remains unclear whether Hedge-Morrell's driver uses the emergency lights. She declined to comment further.

 

The Orleans Parish Civil Sheriff's Office did not return phone calls for comment.

 

'She ain't the president'

 

Troopers stopped Hedge-Morrell in late February after an angry highway driver followed the councilwoman's vehicle for miles, using his cell phone to call authorities and detail the erratic roadway maneuvers.

 

Gary Russo, a construction worker from LaPlace who commutes each day to Jefferson Parish, said in an interview that it was the fourth time in four months he has seen what appeared to be the same vehicle speeding, with sirens on. He said he grew enraged after watching the vehicle with tinted windows and flashing lights weave past.

 

"We all have to deal with traffic, simple as that," he said. "She ain't the president."

 

So Russo called the State Police.

 

"What would happen if someone zigged and she zagged?" Russo said. "She could have killed someone."

 

He said the SUV was going more than 100 mph, according to interviews and a cassette tape recording of the call.

 

"She can drive, I tell you," Russo said.

 

While stopped near Causeway Boulevard in Metairie, Hedge-Morrell said she had an official badge and showed the trooper a city parking pass.

 

"Ms. Hedge-Morrell said she believed we were stopped in Orleans Parish and that she was going to call a high-ranking authority," the report reads. "I explained to her that we were in Jefferson Parish."

 

She said she was late for a meeting with FEMA officials. She then said she would call Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee and State Police Col. Henry Whitehorn, according to the report.

 

'Out of order'

 

The trooper called his supervisor and waited. "Ms. Hedge-Morrell said she was not waiting for him," the report says. "She stated she was going to leave and there was nothing I could do about it."

 

The trooper told Hedge-Morrell he was under orders to detain her until his supervisor arrived, the report said. The supervisor arrived a few minutes later and chatted with Hedge-Morrell, who was allowed to continue to New Orleans.

 

Based upon his review of the incident, Curlee wrote:

 

"It is my opinion that Ms. (Morrell) was completely out of order in her decision to use a blue light and drive at a high rate of speed through two parishes in her attempt to get to a meeting in New Orleans."

 

He added that she has no authority outside of New Orleans and that she incorrectly believes her political position gives her the right to use the lights to get through traffic."

 

Political stature doesn't make it any less dangerous to drive on the shoulder of the road at high speed, McLeary said.

 

"The quality of the roadway is not good," he said. "There can be debris, stopped or stalled vehicles, which can all cause a major problem. We consider this a serious offense."

 

. . . . . . .

 

Brendan McCarthy can be reached at bmccarthy@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3301.

I think I might actually finish this model today. Scary.

-KIE