"NEW YORK STATE SENATOR COMMITS CRIMES"

Wheel Wacky

Thursday, March 25, 2004

ALBANY - State Sen. Ada Smith was convicted yesterday of blowing past a security checkpoint after cursing the state police officer who dared to try to stop her.

Trooper Michael Kavarovic testified that the Brooklyn-Queens Democrat spewed profanities and refused to produce her identification card when stopped while heading to her parking spot in an Albany garage last May.

The loopy lawmaker, who has a long history of bizarre behavior, was hit with a $200 fine by Albany City Court Judge David Duncan, who pointed out state police bent over backward to give her the lowest possible ticket.

But Smith maintained her innocence and said she would appeal.

“I believe in the criminal justice system,” she said after the two-hour trial. “The judge made a decision and I can’t argue with him.”

Kavarovic said Smith defied his order to stop her state-owned 2001 Crown Victoria in the state-owned garage and show identification.

When she put the car in drive, he said, “I stepped back so she wouldn’t run my foot over.” He also recalled the senator shouted the “F” word at him and used a barnyard epithet to describe the requirement to stop at the security post.

The lawmaker presented a novel defense: Her lawyer argued that Smith was not actually in traffic, so the trooper had no jurisdiction to halt her.

Duncan lectured Smith about her defiance, noting that after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack, “There are more stringent controls being used, and I realize that as a senator you are very busy, but the fact remains that a trooper had asked for ID.”

Smith’s past antics have included being accused of biting a cop in Brooklyn after a traffic altercation. But she denied the charge, proclaiming she’s “not into raw meat.”

Her staffers tend to keep their stays brief. Over the past 15 years, she has seen more than 200 aides come and go, legislative sources said.

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