Hillsborough County, Florida Sheriff's Deputy Daniel Brock was honored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving for his drunk driver arrest record, but now it turns out that many of the people he arrested and testified against were innocent and arrested on the basis of falsified reporting by Brock.
From October 2005-October 2006, Brock arrested 313 people for driving under the influence. In one year (not clear from the report if it's during that same period), he arrested 58 people whose blood-alcohol content was below .08. 43 of those 58, according to an internal affairs investigation, displayed no discernable impairment. In 41 cases, urine samples did not show alcohol over the legal limit. In many cases, videos of sobriety tests showed that Brock made false accusations of losing balance, being unable to correctly recite the alphabet, and slurred speech. Brock also failed to turn on his car's audio and video recorder 40% of the time, instead choosing to fill out his reports on the basis of memory, sometimes days and even weeks after the arrest.
Brock was fired on May 24.
(Via The Agitator.)
I feel validated after reading this article. I was arrested by the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office in Sept 2004 for DUI. I was not drunk! Alcohol testing confirmed that I was not impaired however the arresting officers proceeded to hold me in the Orient Jail. My arresting officer also failed to record the incident on his video camera. The charges were later dropped. This arrest cost me thousands of dollars, a job and my reputation. It is my hope that internal affairs will review the DUI arrests records of all officers of the County Sheriffs office.
ReplyDelete