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Rev. Al Sharpton's Ex-Wife, Daughter, Arrested in Harlem Road-Rage Incident

By Nicole Bode | November 1, 2009 2:55pm | Updated on November 1, 2009 1:54pm
Dominique Sharpton, daughter of the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Dominique Sharpton, daughter of the Rev. Al Sharpton.
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National Action Network

By Nicole Bode

DNAinfo Associate Editor

MANHATTAN – Rev. Al Sharpton’s ex-wife and daughter were arrested Friday night after running a red light to get around a slow-moving unmarked police car in Harlem, according to published reports.

Kathy Jordan, 53, and her daughter, Dominique Sharpton, 23, were handcuffed and taken to a police precinct following the curbside face-off with a pair of NYPD Housing Police officers. They were charged with resisting arrest and released with desk appearance tickets.

The mother-daughter tandem were driving on West 110th Street and Eighth Avenue around 7:30 p.m. when they got stuck behind a cruiser from the NYPD’s Housing Police, the Daily News reported.

Sharpton honked at the car and tailgated it before speeding up and swerving across a double yellow line into the oncoming lane to get around the police car, the New York Post reported.  She also blew through a red light, the reports said.

When police pulled the car over to issue them a ticket, Sharpton’s kin argued they were only trying to get around the car, escalating into a war of words that ended with them in handcuffs, the Post said.

"How what was apparently a minor traffic dispute ended up with two arrests with desk appearance tickets is highly questionable and unusual," Rev. Sharpton's lawyer, Michael Hardy, told the Post. "We will pursue all answers in this matter."

Dominique Sharpton is listed as the interim director of membership for her father's civil rights agency, the National Action Network, on the organization's Web site.

Sharpton was married to Jordan for more than two decades, after meeting her when she was a backup singer for Sharpton's mentor, James Brown, according to published reports.