CNN Anchor Admits Leaving Scene Of Accident (Oops!); Jack Cafferty Pleads Guilty

WNBC-TV New York ^ | 8.5.03

[mhking]

NEW YORK -- CNN anchor Jack Cafferty will pay a $250 fine and perform 70 hours of community service after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Cafferty had been charged with the traffic infraction, along with misdemeanor charges of reckless driving, assault and harassment, after police said he knocked a man off a bike with his Cadillac on May 14.

A traffic officer and about five pedestrians ran after Cafferty's car to stop him after the accident, but Cafferty drove through at least two red lights and around other vehicles without stopping, according to a police complaint.

Cafferty was dragging the man's bike underneath his car, police said.

Cafferty later told police that he had seen a man on a bike who may have been a messenger weaving in and out of traffic as Cafferty drove south along Ninth Avenue around 10:25 a.m. When Cafferty looked in his mirror, he saw the man getting up off the ground but was unaware he had hit the bicyclist, the anchor told police.

The bicyclist, Billy Maldonado, told police he was slightly injured.

"This was never anything more than a traffic incident. It was resolved as a traffic infraction. Jack acted responsibly in this, as he always has," said Cafferty's attorney, Seth Rosenberg.

[Timesink]

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[twigs]

It can be bad at times, but I like the format and I really like Michal Husain. She's a provocative anchor in a way most American ones aren't. I'm a pretty discerning listener, and I don't automatically believe their version. But I do like the world news. As much as I like Brit Hume, my all-time favorite news profesional, I don't get the all-world perspective on his evening show, which is not set up for that.

[Timesink]

The really sad thing is that Cafferty's one of the single best anchors NYC ever had. CNN, in its infinite "wisdom," took several years to figure out what to do with him after hiring him on.

[#3Fan]

What does it take to have someone's license revoked?

A regular Joe. The protected liberal elite don't have to live by the same rules as us.

[N. Theknow]

CNN Anchor Admits Leaving Scene Of Accident

First thought upon reading this...

Big deal...he admits leaving work at CNN.

[jagrmeister]

Stupid white man.

I also like it how the CNN spokesperson says Cafferty acted responsibly. Uh, let's see: he mowed down a biker, and fled the scene. CNN can't shoot straight if they tried.

[gcruse]

I like BBC America. And I'm slowly getting addicted to The Office.

[Tamzee]

A traffic officer and about five pedestrians ran after Cafferty's car to stop him after the accident, but Cafferty drove through at least two red lights and around other vehicles without stopping

Not to jump to ANY conclusions, mind you, but doesn't this behavior essentially prove he knew he hit someone?

[L.N. Smithee]

If Cafferty wanted to get away with it, he should have taken the Halle Berry approach -- say that he woke up in his own bed with a bruise on his head, and had no idea how it happened.

I will never be able to prove it, but I believe that Berry's ability to pull that story off inspired her to greater acting on the screen, resulting in her Oscar -- and that nauseating, self-congratulatory speech.

[Liz]

Cafferty had to be blotto. How can you not see a guy on a bike? He then dragged the bike under his car, wove in and out of traffic, tearing through red lights. He was clearly trying to escape the cops...... and his responsibility.

[kitkat]

You're absolutely right, Liz.

How could he NOT know he was dragging something metalic under his car? This is outrageous!

[Liz]

Like they say.....it's not what you know, it's who you know. Cafferty obviously pulled strings.

[joesnuffy]

One set of laws for the elite
another for the sheep

[Eva]

Orwell's Warning The BBC is blind to its own biases.

[EnquiringMind]

I think he also had a cocaine problem in the 80's. He always looked high and had a nasal-y sound to his voice. Once, Liz Smith used her spot on WNBC to "send a message to a well-known NYC anchorman to get help for your drug problem". I just knew she was addressing Cafferty.

[Palladin]

Cafferty is a despicable liberal lush.