NY AG Candidate Involved in What Witnesses Call Hit-and-Run

Candidate for New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been involved in an apparent hit-and-run accident in Manhattan, according to a report.

The Democratic state senator, who represents parts of Manhattan and the Bronx, was in a car driven by a staff member when it hit a parked car Monday night and drove away, NY1 reports.

A Schneiderman spokesman told The New York Times Rachel Kagan, the 22-year-old niece of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, was behind the wheel of the car at the time of the accident.

The car, owned by NY1 executive editor Melissa Rabinovich, sustained about $3,000 in damages; the bumper and left tailight were cracked and the back panel was damaged. An eyewitness saw the incident and recorded Schneiderman's license plate number, which the car owned traced and called police.

Schneiderman spokesman James Freedland says it is "outrageous'' for NY1 to describe the incident as a hit-and-run. He says Kagan merely bumped the parked car and the senator did not realize the car had been damaged. The senator apologized and offered to pay for all repairs, Freedland said.

Rabinovich didn't appear satisfied with Schneiderman's account of the incident.

"He told me he had disciplined the staffer. But he was also insisting that it was just a bump and not a moving violation," she told the New York Post. "I told him, 'Your car was moving and then you drove away. A total stranger realized you damaged my car, but you didn't?'"

Schneiderman had taped an interview on NY1's "Inside City Hall'' just before the incident.

Police say no charges had been filed on Tuesday.