It started with flashing lights in the rearview mirror. For seven Tennessee drivers, that was the moment the night tilted into something unreal. They hadn’t been drinking. They hadn’t been using drugs. Yet each ended up in handcuffs, booked for DUI, and facing criminal charges that would later collapse under the weight of clean blood tests.

The common link: Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper James Zahn.

Court documents show the DUI arrests spanned from 2018 to 2025, all in Williamson County, Tennessee

In each case, drivers insisted they were sober, and lab results proved them right.

One was Hunter Lundgren, who in September 2024 crashed his car after misjudging a turn. Bleeding from a broken nose, he sat in an ambulance when Zahn asked if he’d been drinking at work. Lundgren worked at a winery, but he denied having alcohol. Minutes later, bodycam footage recorded the police officer speculating with another trooper that Lundgren was on cocaine or “some kind of upper.”

Lundgren performed a field sobriety test despite his injuries. Zahn arrested him anyway. Months later, blood tests showed no alcohol, no drugs. Completely sober, WSMV4 shared.

Two months earlier, Zahn arrested another Williamson County driver for DUI. They also tested clean

Three months before that, he pulled over Adam Filyaw, who was on his way to check storm-damaged roofs. Because he was carrying a licensed firearm, Filyaw also faced a weapons charge. His bloodwork showed no alcohol, and only prescribed medication for ADHD. Both charges were dropped.

The police officer’s record goes back further

In 2018, while working for the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office, he arrested Charlie Smith for DUI. Smith’s bloodwork read zero for both alcohol and drugs. Smith’s attorney later sent a letter to the sheriff citing two more cases in which sober drivers were arrested by Zahn, both later dismissed.

In May 2025, Zahn arrested Tracy Sprous, who had been playing pickleball earlier that day. Her bloodwork was clean. She now says she suffers anxiety when she sees police lights.

Attorneys for several of the drivers argue this is not just about one trooper’s judgment

They point to a training and oversight failure within the Tennessee Highway Patrol. THP leadership has not agreed to interviews, and no apology has been issued to those wrongfully arrested.

For the drivers caught up in false DUI charges, the damage goes beyond legal costs and lost time. Lundgren says the experience left him with nightmares he’s still working through.