Exclusive: Cop allows NFL reporter Dianna Russini to name drop her way out of ticket | New Jersey

(The Center Square) – Police body camera video obtained by The Center Square shows former NFL insider Dianna Russini namedropping her way out of a texting-while-driving ticket, possibly with her children in the car.

Officer Felice Bonanno told Russini that he watched her “obviously on your phone for a while,” but he allowed Russini to get off with a warning after she showed him text messages between her and the head coach of his favorite football team, the Minnesota Vikings.

Messages between Russini and Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell were blurred by the Ridgewood Police Department, presumably for privacy reasons.

“I understand your job requires you to be on the phone a lot,” Bonanno said. “Just try to wait until you get home, okay? Keep me up to date on the Vikings, okay? Let me know if (O’Connell) gets a new quarterback, alright?”

Russini also insulted the Vikings quarterback and told the officer she had also been texting Brian Daboll, former head coach of the New York Giants.

Russini later bragged about getting out of the ticket during a podcast appearance, stating her children were in the car and claiming that it was her second violation in weeks. She said she knew it was wrong to text while driving, but she was in the middle of reporting a breaking NFL news story. Russini also appears to have exaggerated the story, falsely claiming she allowed the officer to FaceTime with his favorite NFL team’s head coach.

A spokesperson for the Ridgewood Police Department stated the officer “exercised his professional discretion and issued a verbal warning to Ms. Russini,” which is “consistent with Ridgewood Police Department policy and longstanding practice.”

“Police officers are encouraged to use their judgment and, when appropriate, provide motorists with warnings as part of the Department’s commitment to fair, impartial and community-oriented policing,” wrote Capt. Glenn Ender of the Ridgewood Police Department.

Records show Bonnano had been an officer with the department for approximately four months at the time of the traffic stop.

New Jersey law allows officers to exercise discretion during traffic stops, but the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) has previously voiced concerns with officers providing preferential treatment to unsafe motorists. In 2024, the office found “there were many instances in which OSC observed that troopers exercised their discretion not to enforce the law even when the troopers observed that a driver had posed a very real danger to other motorists on the road.”

Russini made national news earlier this year when Page Six published photos of her holding hands with Mike Vrabel – head football coach of the New England Patriots –  at a romantic, adults-only resort. The outlet also published photos of the two at a bar in which they appeared to be kissing. Both Vrabel and Russini are married to other people. Vrabel initially downplayed the photos, but later publicly apologized and stepped away from the NFL Draft to attend counseling with his wife. Russini has denied all wrongdoing but resigned from her job at The Athletic during an internal investigation.

According to the New York Times, parent company of The Athletic, a reporter talking her way out of a ticket by allowing a police officer to FaceTime with an NFL head coach would be considered “unacceptable conduct.”