Man arrested for DUI, only problem is he was sober and blew a point 0.00

[HipChick]

SURPRISE, AZ - Jessie Thornton sleeps during the day and runs errands and works out during the night.

"My wife, she's an ER nurse and works three 12-hour shifts, so I adjusted my schedule to be like her schedule," Thornton told our Phoenix sister station KNXV.

The 64-year-old retired firefighter moved to a retirement community in Surprise, Arizona from Ohio.

Jessie says his late hours have put him in the police spotlight.

"I've been stopped 10 times in Surprise and given four tickets, it's amazing," said Thornton.

His latest incident with Surprise police officers prompted Thornton to hire a lawyer with plans to sue the department.

Around 11 p.m. Thornton, according to Surprise Police Department paperwork, was pulled over for crossing the white line in his lane.

"He (the officer) walked up and he said 'I can tell you're driving DUI by looking in your eyes,'" said Thornton.

The 64-year-old says his eyes could have been red because he had just left LA Fitness where he was in the pool swimming.

"I take my glasses off and he says, 'You've got bloodshot eyes.' I said, 'I've been swimming at LA Fitness,' and he says, 'I think you're DUI,'" said Thornton. "He (the officer) goes, 'Well we're going to do a sobriety test.' I said, 'OK, but I got bad knees and a bad hip with surgery in two days.'"

Medical documents show Thornton was scheduled to have hip replacement surgery two days after the incident.

According to the police report, the officer notes that Thornton does have a hip and knee problem.

Thornton said two other officers arrived and he conducted the sobriety test.

"At one point, one of the officers shined the light in my eye and said, 'Oh, sorry,' and asked the other officer if he was doing it right,'" said Thornton.

Thornton said he was then placed in handcuffs and told to sit on the curb.

"I couldn't even sit on the ground like that and they knew it and I was like laying on the ground, then they put me in the back of an SUV and when I asked the officer to move her seat up 'cause my hip hurt she told me to stop whining," 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.


According the documents from the Surprise Police Department, the blood analysis showed no drugs were detected in Thornton's blood.

Jessie's car had been impounded and the MVD notified of the DUI charge.

"I then get this message that my license is being suspended and I have to take some sort of drinking class or something," said Thornton.

http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/local_news/water_cooler/man-charged-with-dui-despite-documents-showing-blood-alcohol-content-of-0000

"It was driving while black," said Thornton.

"This is a case of D-W-B, driving while black," said Thornton's attorney Marc Victor.

Victor's office has filed a notice of claim against the City of Surprise seeking $500,000.

"It's not totally about the money, although I'm already out more than $5,000, that's $5,000 that I don't have," said Thornton.

[truebrit71]

1. Congratulations Mr. Thornton...you just won the lottery

..stupid, stupid cops...

[AnotherMcIntosh]

3. Maybe.

[Lex]

4. They'll settle. They want it out of the headlines. nt

[AnotherMcIntosh]

6. He's 64. Settle when?

It will be handled by an insurance company.

Why won't they do what many insurance companies do with the elderly - make low-ball offers and wait them out?

There are now civil-rights cases taking five years and more to go to trial.

[Lex]

8. Soon. To get it out of the headlines. Even if he dies, his estate has the claim

and the right to collect, so dragging it doesn't mean there is no claim.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

10. Doesn't it depend upon what type of damages he can claim?

General pain and suffering? Emotional trauma? That could present a problem.

Because 42 U.S.C. § 1983 is silent on the issue of survivability and no general federal survival statue exists, it is generally known that state law is to be relied upon for an answer (42 U.S.C. § 1988). (Cf., however, the Fifth Circuit's case of Shaw v. Garrison, 545 F.2d 980.)

Arizona adopted the common-law rule that claims for pain and suffering don't survive a person's death. ARS 14-3110
http://www.azleg.gov/ars/14/03110.htm

What other theory can you point to support a claim for other damages? Can you think of any?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

2. Stopped 10 times and given 4 tickets? It wouldn't be a surprise if they increased their numbers,

and planted evidence. Some cops do that.

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. But they don't profile ...

in Arizona!!!

Within 3 months of moving here, I had been stopped 15 times (1 ticket for a non-working head light).

On one occasion, I was stopped 4 times in less than 2 miles. The last time I was stopped, I asked the Officer whether he had a radio in his car. When he said "yes", I told him to go to his car and broadcast that

the Black man driving the silver Benz has already been tickets for having a non-functional head light, he wants me to tell you that if he gets stopped one more time, have a supervisor present and tell the supervisor be prepared to explain the Pima County Sheriff's Department's actions.

After saying this, the Officer told me that once I crossed "Fairview", I would be in "TPD land" and should be okay.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

7. That must have been some time ago. Nowadays, talking to a cop that way will increase your chances

of getting zapped multiple times or shot.

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, HipChick.