Put in cuffs for Capitol offense – using my cell
ALBANY — I can’t say I was surprised someone was led away in handcuffs from the state Capitol on Wednesday afternoon. I just never thought it would be me — especially for the capital crime of talking on a cell phone.
The incident had to be the most bizarre thing I’ve experienced during my nearly quarter century covering the Capitol — and that is saying something.
In fact, when he was running for governor in 2010, Andrew Cuomo, then the state attorney general, warned I could be arrested after I listened in on a campaign meeting when his spokesman tried to send my call into voice mail but instead turned on his phone.
I escaped incarceration then. This time, I fought the law and the law won — as ridiculous as it was.
It all started innocently enough. I was walking through the practically empty lobby outside the Senate chamber while talking on my cell phone with a source.
A relatively new Senate sergeant at arms whom I was not familiar with told me to get off the phone. I asked if he was kidding since the Senate was not in session and I, like many others, routinely speak on the phone when that’s the case.
I even explained that many of his colleagues often see me doing it and merely wave. He was having none of it. And as famed anchorman Ron Burgundy once said: “Boy, that escalated quickly.”
Next thing you know, the former cop is in my grill telling me to leave the area. He wouldn’t back off.
I can’t say I took to that politely and we started going back and forth.
The state police, who acted professionally throughout, were called and asked me several times to leave.
I said I would happily go if the sergeant at arms still in my face backed up and also walked away. He didn’t. So I didn’t.
The troopers said I was trespassing in a building I’ve worked at for 24 years, put me in cuffs and drove me in a squad car to a station in the Capitol complex.
It was the first time I can say I had to ignore an editor’s call because I was in a police car with my hands cuffed behind my back.
A little while later, Steve Slagen, a good guy who is in charge of the Senate sergeants at arms, showed up and was extremely apologetic, saying the chamber would not file charges.
If things weren’t weird enough, as I was getting ready to go back to work, Cuomo himself showed up. We chatted briefly as he joked he’d be my pro bono counsel.
As we left the station, a crowd of reporters was waiting.
I let the governor do his thing as I quietly slipped away. After my brief time in custody, I can honestly say the air smells crisper and the food tastes sweeter.
Of course, being the glass-halffull guy that I am, I’m just glad the incident took place shortly after I managed to finally score tickets to “Springsteen on Broadway.” Striking out on seats again would have been the true crime.