The city of Surprise, Arizona, has an unwelcome surprise for 64-year-old retired firefighter Jessie Thornton: its police officers can tell whether a person is drunk simply by looking in his eyes, breathalyzer test be damned!
Christopher Sign of ABC15 has the scoop:
"He (the officer) walked up and he said 'I can tell you're driving DUI by looking in your eyes,'" said Thornton. [...]
According to documents provided to ABC15 from the City of Surprise, Thornton was taken to police headquarters where he took a breathalyzer test.The test, according to the police documents came back with a blood alcohol level of 0.000.
"Yes, I do the breathalyzer and it comes back zero, zero, zero," said Thornton.
While in custody, a "DRE" or drug recognition expert is called to test Thornton.
"After he did all the tests, he says, 'I would never have arrested you, you show no signs of impairment,'" said Thornton.
The fact the officer just assumed he was drunk was disgusting.
Any halfway decent lawyer in a fair court would have it thrown out.
They want to move there because it's warmer than where we are.
Good thing we're white.
We were partying in his house and a drunk driver ran into his car that was parked on the street and then drove off. When we reported the incident to the cops to get a police report he was arrested and charged with a DUI.
The only thing that saved him is the drunk driver lost a piece of his front grill at the scene and then smashed into a telephone pole a mile away...... but even with all that it took weeks and thousands in lawyer bills for him to clear his name.