Facts:
My client lives on St. Pete Beach and a Pinellas County Sheriff’s Deputy had it in for her. She was stopped two weeks before this case by the Deputy because her insurance had lapsed. She was given a ticket for driving with a suspended license. She fixed it immediately and reinstated her license.
The evening of our case, she was driving with a friend to see a band play. She was on Gulf Blvd when the same Deputy stopped her and said that she ran a stop sign. He pulled her out of the car and arrested her for driving on a suspended license. While he had her in his car, four more patrol cars showed up. Once the Deputy checked her license, he realized that she had a valid license and then unarrested her.
Instead of letting her go, he asked her if she wanted to do field sobriety tests. When she declined, he then arrested her for DUI!
The Case:
I knew immediately that this was an unusual situation and that we were going to have to look into all the legal issues. Once we got the police reports and the video we knew the Deputy made multiple mistakes. Not only did he wrongfully arrest her for driving without a license, he did not tell her what the repercussions would be if she refused the sobriety tests, he did not read her Miranda, and he did not have cause to arrest her for DUI.
But, there was a young prosecutor assigned to the case and she said that because my client had a prior DUI, she would not do anything with the case.
We filed a Motion to Suppress and set it for hearing.
The Result:
The morning of the hearing on the Motion to Suppress, the supervisor in the State Attorney’s Office met us before court and offered a reduction to careless driving. It is a civil infraction. Our client accepted and only had to pay a fine of $166. It was a great result. My client is now considering filing an internal affairs complaint against the Deputy for his poor work and the wrongful arrest.
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