Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley faces backlash after being caught on a police body camera in a viral confrontation with a police officer over a speeding ticket.
Whether she survives it, it's too soon to say.
Dennis Vacco, former U.S. Attorney for Western New York and former New York State Attorney General joined WBEN on Tuesday to offer legal insight.
He says there are three issues to navigate: Political, legal and ethical.
"Politically, the only person under the New York State constitution who can remove a sitting D.A. is the governor. Interestingly," said Vacco on WBEN. "The power to remove a sitting D.A. hasn't been used since 1900. I don't think the power to remove anyone from public office has been used by a governor in nearly 100 years."
Vacco said it will boil down to whether Gov. Kathy Hochul thinks Doorley's conduct is enough to remove her.
Related
Vacco, a Partner with Lippes Mathias LLP, knows Doorley. He called the incident foolish, and said it showed bad judgement and a flash of arrogance.
"She clearly wasn't thinking appropriately," he added.
On the legal side, Vacco said Gov. Hochul referred the investigation to the State's Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct. It was first formed in 2018, and reconfigured in 2021. The Doorley incident would be the first investigation for this state commission.
"I don't think her conduct rises to the level of the type of misconduct that the state legislature intended this commission to review," Vacco said.
The third issue is ethics, and whether Doorley's moral authority to be the chief law enforcement officer in Rochester has been sufficiently eroded.
"I think she damaged herself," Vacco said. "She's a longtime prosecutor, a tough and courageous prosecutor. She went through difficult times personally with her own bout with cancer. This video is stunning to me and surprising to me. It might have the impact of undermining her moral authority in the community."
Vacco says Doorley is going to have to pay careful attention to her decisions and always understand that her decisions will be judged based upon a perceived double standard.
He points out that the D.A. has already taken some steps on her own. She has pled guilty to the traffic ticket.
"She absolutely had to do that," Vacco noted. "If she called me and asked me what to do, I would have said walk into court and plead guilty to that speeding ticket ASAP."
She has also referred the investigation to a neighboring county D.A.'s office. Vacco called that interesting, because there is a possibility that she may have committed obstruction of justice by failing to respond to the request of a police officer.
Doorley also filed a complaint against herself with the attorney grievance committee.
"At the end of the day, I'm not excusing her conduct, but I don't
think this rises to the level of removing a duly elected official," Vacco said.