REPEAT PARKING AND PASSENGER OFFENDER 3:
DWI COPS WIN CRUISES
by John Lee
Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. —President Abraham Lincoln
How can someone who is not driving get arrested twice for drunk driving? While leaving a drunk-driver "school," how can that person then get crashed into by a drunk driver running a red light–a wealthy drunk driver who evades arrest based upon favoritism?
Stacy, 20, and Roger, 28, fall somewhere between DWI-arrest "rookies" and citizens who have been convicted by the heavy hand of government. "Fortunately" for them, they were just middle-class enough to be able to spend many thousands of their hard-earned dollars on competent legal defense after-the-fact.
Their story began in Florida, when Stacy was out visiting friends for the evening. After the party ended, a friend drove her back to her car. Because she had enjoyed herself with a few alcohol beverages, Stacy decided to call a cab instead of drive the short distance home. There was no answer at the cab company, due to the late hour, yet Stacy did not want to drive home after drinking. She dozed off while sitting in her car at the parking lot--it had been a very long day of work and play. Her car keys were not in the ignition, but on the passenger seat.
Stacy awoke four hours later when a police officer shined a high-powered flashlight in her eyes. The cop ordered her out of her parked car, and Stacy agreed to take the voluntary field sobriety tests. She recited her ABC's OK, she followed the pen (HGN Task) OK, and stumbled from wearing sandals during the heel-to-toe walk-and-turn test.
The cop "rubber stamped" in his "D.U.I. Probable Cause Affidavit": "H.G.N. PRESENT CAN'T KEEP BALANCE DURING THE INSTRUCTIONS. HAD SPACES ON SOME STEPS, TOOK AN INCORRECT NUMBER OF STEPS, ARMS RAISED STUMBLES WHILE WALKING RAISED ARMS FOR BALANCE AND PUT FOOT DOWN SEVERAL TIMES SHE HAD TROUBLE COUNTING BY OMITTING NUMBERS, SWAYED BY BALANCING, SHE ALSO WHILE COUNTING USED THE NUMBER "33" NOT "23" FAILED TO POINT FORWARD PRIOR TO TOUCHING NOSE AND MISSED THE TIP ON MOST ALL ATTEMPTS, SWAY AND OPENS EYES DURING TEST SWAYED AND OPENED EYES AT BEGINNING OF THE TEST MODERATE ODOR OF ALCOHOL-BEVERAGE ON BREATH, EYES BLOODSHOT AND WATERY SPEECH MUMBELED SLURRED AT TIMES DURING WALK AND TURN FIELD TEST MADE STATEMENTS "I CAN'T DO THIS NORMAL" AND I CAN'T DO THIS SOBER." [Grammatical errors in original document.]
Two old beer bottles were found under the seat during a vehicle "inventory" (search). Charged with "possession of alcohol by a minor" despite being a voting-age adult who was old enough to fight and die in the U.S. armed forces during the previous three years. On the "D.U.I. Probable Cause Affidavit" the cop checked the box "adult case" not "juvenile case."
Stacy was arrested for DWI and taken to jail. She volunteered for the breath-alcohol test, where the score was allegedly 0.11%, just 0.01% over the "legal limit." This is despite over four hours passing from the last drink. Fingerprinted. Mug shots. Spent the night in jail, in a cell without chairs or bed, sitting on a cold concrete floor. "All I could think of was that I wasn't driving. I thought I was doing the right thing," she recalled. Before taken to the judge for arraignment the next morning, Stacy's wrists and ankles were shackled and she rode in a van with eight other convicts. Next stop was county jail where she was put in a "nasty" holding cell with one other girl, once again sitting on the cold concrete floor. Then Stacy was moved to a "private" room to await arraignment.
After release from jail, Stacy's name, address and personal information was published in the local newspaper for her family, friends and employer to read. The cop's unproven allegations were also published, without rebuttal from Stacy nor legal analysis from an attorney.
Yet the cop later lied and testified under oath that he saw her actually driving her car, instead of following his original sworn affidavit that said she was already parked with the keys out of the ignition. Also, his testimony was not supported by the videotape recording of the field sobriety tests, which she appeared to pass.
As her lawyer explained it, "We trapped Officer Nick in several inconsistencies between the probable cause affidavit and his testimony at the hearing on our Motion to Suppress and Motion to Dismiss. After the court continued the hearing, the State elected to drop the charges." Charges were plea bargained down to a $100 parking ticket, even though she was not "parked" since she was sitting in the car, and the business was closed so the handicapped space was not active. This "guilty plea" prevented her from being able to sue for false arrest without probable cause. As Stacy said, "I had to pay $3,000 in fees and charges, not to mention my expensive lawyer and DUI classes. I had all my charges dropped because the cop lied in court and got caught. I still don't think it was fair."
No report was made in the newspaper that Stacy was falsely arrested and the charges were dropped because the cop committed the crime of perjury. The cop was not arrested for perjury.
The cop who made the false arrest and committed perjury was rewarded with a cruise to the Bahamas. In the small town, all the citizens forced to pay for DWI school had been arrested by the same cop. This also was not reported in the "news" paper.
Stacy relocated to Tennessee with her fiancee who was a general manager with their company. They settled down to their new jobs and a new lives, and soon got married.
One evening after work they drove to a popular and stylish family restaurant. Stacy's husband enjoyed two 10oz steak dinners including four baked potatoes. As Stacy explained, "He was extra hungry that night." He drank three beers in a 3-hour period while watching a football game on the big-screen T.V. Stacy enjoyed 4 Bloody Marys, since she was not driving.
During the one-hour drive home, they were stopped for allegedly speeding by a Highway Patrol car. During the detainment, when asked where they had bee, Roger truthfully replied. He was also truthful regarding enjoying three beers at dinner, since he felt this was a responsible amount of alcohol, in his experience as a restaurant manager.
However, the cop say things differently, and ordered him out of the car and onto the dark highway with high-speed traffic whizzing by just a couple of feet away. He was then "told" to perform the field sobriety tests. When he "passed" them all yet the trooper kept ordering that they be repeated, Roger became frustrated and asked, "Would you like me to do jumping jacks, too?" The trooper retaliated in anger and arrested him for "having an attitude that confirmed he was drunk." The trooper told his partner that, "It's not in his eyes, it's in his mouth." He was arrested and placed in the cage of the highway patrol car. "Then it was time to mess with me and my husband's four-year-old child," Stacy recalled.
Although she was a passenger, she was ordered to volunteer to take the field sobriety tests. "The trooper required us to do all sorts of tricks." She asked the trooper, "I wasn't driving, so why should I take the (fst) tests?" Of course, this now meant that in the eyes of the troopers, she had a "drunken attitude," too, as the trooper advised her. "You might as well ask me to walk on a tightrope." She did the complicated tests in high heels on an inclined gravel road with tractor-trailer trucks blowing by. There was no painted line to follow on the dark road which was almost invisible due to the headlights and emergency lights flashing directly into her eyes. She was cold and under high stress, yet she did the tests as best she could.
The heavily armed troopers demanded permission to search the car, which, out of terror, she "volunteered" they could do. The entire vehicle was intensively searched for drugs. (Her car had an air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror, and she had been smoking a cigarette, and both are considered "evidence" of drug use. The finding of drugs would have allowed permanent seizure of the vehicle for police profit.) This is the same county along the Interstate 75 where the Tennessee Highway Patrol was later determined to be operating an illegal road block for DWI and drugs, where thousands of arrests were illegally made.
When the troopers opened the trunk, they discovered suit cases. One trooper demanded, "Why do you have suit cases?" Stacy replied, "Because I carry clothes in them." Her coat was also in the trunk. The trooper grilled her, "You said you didn't have a coat." Stacy replied, "I'm not wearing it tonight." The trooper shouted, "Don't take that attitude with me!"
After the search, she was arrested by the troopers and put in the cage with her fiancee. The troopers also placed the four-year-old child in the cage with his father. The troopers did not read them their Miranda rights, since "officially" they were not yet under arrest (to do so would have prevented police from denying them a lawyer and would have prevented a blood alcohol test).
The troopers denied him a breath test, forcing him against his will to go to the hospital to take a blood test, despite his repeated requests for a breath test. It appeared they were being "profiled" as drug dealers for having an air freshener hanging from the car mirror, and for recently moving from Florida. Blood tests are only used for detecting drugs, since (most) breath testers cannot check for drugs. The search of the vehicle was an obvious search for drugs.
He was charged with four counts: speeding, open container, child endangerment and DWI. She got charged with "DWI by consent," since they were driving in her car, even though she was not driving.
The troopers kept him in the cage, and let her and their child ride in the tow truck (another $100 expense). They towed the car to their house, where she was dropped off with the child and her car. Roger was taken to hospital for a blood test. He tested at 0.03% BAC (the "legal limit" was 0.10% BAC). He tested negative for drugs. Police refused to allow him to go home, so Stacy hired a taxi the next day (since she was paranoid about driving to the "Justice Center") and paid a non-refundable bail "insurance"of $225.
They both pled not guilty at their arraignment before "Crazy Judge Weiner," who was notorious for drinking alcohol on the job. After the hearing, Roger was released. They hired a lawyer which cost another $3,000.
Eventually, the DWI and child endangerment charges were dismissed, but Roger was forced to plead guilty to speeding and the open container citation. A trial would cost over $10,000, which was more money than they had available. Both were required to pay for DWI classes. Plus their child had to witness his father being arrested, and the child had to experience for himself what it feels like to be arrested and forced into a cage by police officers at gunpoint. As Stacy explained, "The officer had another officer in the car because, as we found out later, he had gotten into trouble before for being too brutal. He also had a video camera in his car for the same reason." The videotape did not confirm the troopers' allegations of DWI, and it failed to prove that Roger and Stacy failed the field sobriety tests.
Stacy just attended the DWI school in Tennessee to meet her old "parking ticket" requirement for Florida. Her ordeal was not yet over, however. On the way home from the DWI class, she was hit by a drunk driver who ran a red light and made a left turn in front of her. This was only one week after her previous arrest for DWI as a passenger. In the crash report under "Contributing Factors," the other driver was marked for "Failure to Yield," and Stacy was marked "None." Under "Condition of Driver" the other driver was marked "Had Been Drinking," yet in the same category he was also marked "Ability Not Impaired" and "Apparently Normal."
Her car, which she bought new only 13 days previously, was totaled. It had more damage than a new car was worth. Since the driver who caused the crash was the son of a wealthy and influential business owner, he was never given any sobriety or blood-alcohol tests and was not arrested for DWI, despite confessing to drinking alcohol. He did not have any insurance.
Stacy, who was seriously injured, was charged with driving on a revoked license, even though her license was technically "suspended" until she passed the DWI school, which she accomplished one hour prior. The Florida Department of Motor Vehicles still failed to update its computer records after her DWI charge was dismissed. She was left with thousands of dollars in unpaid hospital bills and surgeries for a torn shoulder, and got permanent scars on her wrists from the airbag.
When her husband arrived and found Stacy on the ambulance stretcher, he approached the other driver and noticed the odor of alcohol. When he reported this to police, the cop said, "You don't know who his daddy is." When Roger started raising hell to force a blood-alcohol test, the cop warned him to "Shut up or I'll arrest you!" Later Roger wished he had punched out the drinking driver in order to force a blood-alcohol test and courtroom showdown.
The two Republicans cannot believe this police corruption is true everywhere, that their three experiences were only isolated incidents. They both agreed, "We don't think all cops are bad, but we believe some cops are bad, and the system is definitely bad." Stacy added, "It's crazy. It's just crazy."
Stacy and Roger divorced two years later, partially as a result of the added stress of police harassment and court expenses. During family "discussions," Stacy admitted the fright of the DWI arrests often got thrown into the heated conversations.
[Interview, court records.]
| 
