Officer Caught Arresting Sober Motorists for DUI

Another recent article, this time from Oregon:

An award-winning police officer in Corvallis, Oregon quits after investigation looks into his arrest of sober motorist for DUI.

A sober man wants justice after he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) by one of the most productive Corvallis, Oregon police officers. David E. Picray notified the city on August 30 that he was considering filing suit for false arrest, as reported by the Corvallis Gazette-Times newspaper.

On May 11, Picray had gone to a bar to pick up his wife and friends. While parked, his wife sent him a text message that they had moved to a bar a block away, so Picray drove a bit closer to the second bar, stopping his car in a store parking lot. When Picray left the car, Officer Dave Cox, who had been staking out area bars, confronted him. Cox suggested that Picray's driving such a short distance was suspicious.

Cox wrote in his report that the motorist had "bloodshot and glassy" eyes and that his tongue had a "light green coating." The motorist had a cold and was chewing gum. The motorist blew 0.0 on a breathalyzer test and a drug test confirmed that his system was clean, aside from a trace amount of codeine from cold medicine taken the previous day. Although Picray was not charged with a DUI offense, the arrest will stay on his record.

"An arrest for traffic is not expungeable," Corvallis defense attorney Jennifer Nash told the Corvallis Gazette-Times newspaper. "So when innocent people are arrested there is actual damage."

Picray was not the only sober motorist arrested by Cox in May. At least six of 27 motorists arrested by Cox for DUI that month passed drug testing and registered blood alcohol levels below the legal limit. Nonetheless, twenty-two of the arrest reports contained passages essentially identical to those in Picray's report describing "bloodshot and glassy" eyes and other alleged indicators of intoxication.

California defense attorney Lawrence Taylor calls says this "Xeroxing" of arrest reports is common.

"The (prewritten) report tells the officer what he should have seen -- not what he actually saw," Taylor wrote. "And as any honest cop will tell you, drunk driving cases rarely follow such a neat, pre-described script. But it is convenient. And avoids messy complications -- like the actual facts."

Corvallis police put Cox on paid leave on September 14 and he resigned November 1. Sergeant Jim Crain was put on leave October 18. Cox made 27 of the 35 DUI arrests for Corvallis in May and was named DUII Enforcement Officer of the Year in 2003.

"I believe this is part of a larger problem with the Corvallis police," Dr Adam Schultz, a resident, wrote in a letter to the mayor. "Is it not true that the police officers attempt to maximize their performance-related pay reviews, and that the number of citations is a key metric? Isn't this the perfect condition for a conflict-of-interest, i.e. rather than measuring performance through improvement in road safety, instead doesn't this encourage spurious citations?"

Source: Man who filed tort claim IDs himself (Corvallis Gazette-Times (OR), 11/10/2007)

Sober Diabetic Man Tasered, Accused of DUI

This article appeared recently in Alabama:

Police in Ozark, Alabama on Tuesday used a taser on a sober man who was having a diabetic seizure. A trio of police cruisers were called to the scene of a black Nissan truck and trailer pulled over on the side of the road near the intersection of Highway 231 and Marley Mill Road at around 4pm. James Bludsworth, 54, a man with no criminal record, was was slumped over behind the wheel. Because of his condition he was not responsive to police commands.

Police then fired tasers at the sick man three times. A police officer now says that he smelled alcohol on Bludsworth, even though later testing showed no trace of alcohol in his system. Ozark Police Chief Myron Williams also claims the sick man was "combative." Instead of taking Bludsworth to medical care he was booked at Dale County Jail and charged with resisting arrest and driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). Bludsworth has no recollection of the incident and is free on $1000 bond.

Police later dropped a charge against Bludsworth relating to an alleged towing infraction.

Source: Criminal charges remain against driver found unconscious (Dothan Eagle (AL), 11/9/2007)

(Thanks again to Lawrence Taylor)