Seven sober drivers arrested and charged with a DUI in Tennessee
Stephanie Fair was heading home after work five months ago and was pulled over by state Tropper Keith Velez. He pulled her over for failing to slow down or move over while he was stopped on the side of the highway.
“She almost f***ing hit me,” Velez was recording saying on his body cam, quoted by WSMV. Even though Fair was as sober as a judge, Velez told the other trooper it seemed like Fair’d been drinking.
“I just come up to the car and it just reeks of alcohol,” he said. When Velez returns to Fair, she admits she should have moved over and apologized for not doing so. Though, it wasn’t enough for Velez.
“There’s a very distinct odor of alcohol that comes from either the person or inside the vehicle,” Velez told her. The shock on her face was easy to read from the body cam footage.
“I understand, but on my life, I don’t drink alcohol,” Fair said. Velez made her do a field sobriety test, where she can be heard repeating that she doesn’t drink. Still, she was put in handcuffs and hauled downtown in the back of a squad car. She was then charged with a DUI.
She wasn’t the only one with a wrongful DUI charge
Two months after the incident, her blood test results came back clean. There was no blood or alcohol in her system at the time of her arrest. Her lawyer pulled security footage showing she consumed ice cream – not alcohol – an hour before she was pulled over.
“When he said he could smell it, I knew it was corrupt,” she said. “This is completely wrong.”
In the past year, seven other sober Nashville drivers have been arrested and charged with DUIs. Candace Slate was charged with a DUI after she was in an accident while driving home. She was forced to do a field sobriety test and failed due to chronic pain in her knees.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to lose my daughter, I can’t lose her. I can’t lose my license. This is my life,'” said Slate. She, like Fair, had blood test results that showed she was completely sober. Slate also hired an attorney to repeal the DUI charge, and won – but it cost her.
“I ended up broke, trying to prove my innocence,” she said. “Yes, I won, but I’m terrified to drive now.”
Lebreesha Batey suffered a similar fate earlier this year, as well as Reid Hawley, Keith VonSoosten, Thomas Manis, and Henry Esslinger. Manis says he’s currently suing the Tennessee Highway Patrol for his wrongful DUI arrest.
“There is an issue. There is a real issue in Tennessee,” said Batey. More than 600 sober drivers have been arrested and charged with DUIs. When the outlet reached out to the THP, a spokesperson said the agency was “looking into” the findings.