Rutgers-Newark chancellor to police after car accident: 'If I miss my plane, you folks are in trouble!'
NEWARK, New Jersey -- Police camera video shows the chancellor of Rutgers University's Newark campus flaunting her position and shouting "If I miss my plane, you folks are in trouble!" to campus officers investigating a fender-bender involving her driver and a parked police SUV.
The university says Nancy Cantor has apologized after watching a police camera video of the March 3 incident.
Cantor's driver was picking her up in front of her office when the car he was driving struck the passenger side rear bumper of the SUV that was parked in front of him, according to a police report. Another officer said Cantor's driver had pulled up close to the SUV to give the chancellor a clear path to the car on a street lined with piles of snow.
There was no significant damage to either car and no one was hurt, the police report said. An officer was sitting in the SUV at the time.
The officers stayed calm throughout the incident, repeatedly telling Cantor and her staff that they couldn't let her car leave until they gathered details of the accident and got approval from their superiors. During the dispute, Cantor told the officers "I'm the chancellor!" and said she was being held "hostage" at the scene.
Cantor and her car and driver were eventually allowed to leave. No tickets were issued.
Cantor spent nearly a decade as president of Syracuse University before she stepped down in 2013. She became the Rutgers-Newark chancellor in 2014.
"The chancellor just recently saw the video of the incident from several months ago and reached out to the officers with an apology," the university said in a statement. Rutgers officials at the university's main campus in New Brunswick declined further comment, saying they thought Cantor's apology was sufficient.
Rutgers-Newark Police Chief Carmelo "John" Huertas said the campus police accepted Cantor's apology.
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