Mary Pat Christie caught, ticketed in NJ distracted driving crackdown
Police dash camera footage from the April 10 traffic stop was published today.
— -- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's wife was pulled over for using her cell phone while driving after her husband had launched a statewide initiative to fight distracted driving.
The police dash camera footage from the April 10 traffic stop in Bernardsville, New Jersey, involving Mary Pat Christie was obtained by NJ Advance Media and published this morning.
In the video, Mary Pat Christie can be heard asking why she was pulled over and noting that she wasn't making a call at the time.
"You can't have it in your hand at all. No, ma'am," the officer replies.
She can also be heard asking, "What if you've, like, coffee in your hand?"
"Technically, according to the law, if it's distracting, you can't have a coffee in your hand or anything else, either. But it's cell phone distracted driver month," the officer explains.
"Was I not looking at the road?" she replies.
"You were looking down at your phone. You wanted to ask me with both your hands. I didn't know what you were doing. I just saw the phone in your hand," the officer replies.
"I'm trying to follow the law," she says in response.
At no point does Mary Pat Christie identify herself as the state's first lady.
That's more than her husband did during one of his previous traffic violations. Chris Christie's spotty traffic record became a big talking point during his 2009 gubernatorial campaign, with NJ.com reporting at the time that he had been involved in six accidents and was cited 13 times for moving violations, resulting in a total of 25 violation points on his drivers' license.
In one 2002 accident, the local police director noted that Chris Christie identified himself as a then-U.S. attorney, according to NJ.com.
During the April 10 stop, Mary Pat Christie did not mention her political status. She pleaded guilty later that month to using a cell phone while driving and paid a $250 fine, according to NJ.com.
The governor's press secretary, Brian Murray, told ABC News that the office was not releasing a statement on the matter “other than my assessment of the NJ.com piece as being a non-story.”
