Posted on 08/19/2009 8:53:20 PM PDT by ellery
KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- A man is suing the Kissimmee Police Department for an arrest over mints. When officers pulled Donald May over for an expired tag, they thought the mints he was chewing were crack and arrested him.
May told Eyewitness News they wouldn't let him out of jail for three months until tests proved the so-called drugs were candy.
May said he was just minding his business, driving home from work, when a Kissimmee police officer pulled him over near 192.
"I don't know how it occurred," he said.
May was pulled over for an expired tag on his car. When the officer walked up to him, he noticed something white in May's mouth. May said it was breath mints, but the officer thought it was crack cocaine.
"He took them out of my mouth and put them in a baggy and locked me up [for] possession of cocaine and tampering with evidence," May explained.
The officer claimed he field-tested the evidence and it tested positive for drugs. The officer said he saw May buying drugs while he was stopped at an intersection. He also stated in his report May waived his Miranda rights and voluntarily admitted to buying drugs.
May said that never happened.
"My client never admitted he purchased crack cocaine. Why would he say that?" attorney Adam Sudbury said.
May was thrown in jail and was unable to bond out for three months. He didn't get out until he received a letter from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the State Attorney's Office that test results showed no drugs were found.
"While I was sitting in jail I lost my apartment. I lost everything," he said.
While May was behind bars, the Kissimmee Police Department towed his car and auctioned it off. He lost his job and was evicted. Now May is suing the city for false arrest and false imprisonment. He wants to be compensated for the loss of his car and job.
May's attorney and the city of Kissimmee discussed a possible settlement last year, but failed to reach an agreement.
Isn’t that the truth?!
The Lee County Sheriffs Dept (in sw Florida) is just as bad.
When I read the article, I immediately thought “I wonder if this happened in Lee County?”
I didn’t realize Florida HAD a “SW”. NW, NE, and SE, yes, but SW?
Yep, Naples - Fort Myers - Port Charlotte are considered to be part of sw Florida.
Good GOP turnout in those areas too.
Hope he sues their eyeballs out.
If I were on the jury, any award not large enough to impact the chillldren of Kissimee would be too small.
Time for the drug wars to end.
$lap the $hit out of the dumb-a$$ cop$, including ALL respon$ible for thi$ fia$co.
Make it hurt so much that they have to fire cops because they are short of money paying this guy off.
Where was the damn oversight on this one?
The problem is not so much the cop -— all people make mistakes -— but the system that allows a mistake not only go uncorrected but amplifies it.
Hey, in FLA, if it’s South, it ain’t West, and if it’s West, it ain’t South! ;-)
You SO have the right idea, and I agree with you wholeheartedly! The poor man in the story finds himself in a terrible situation because of a jackass cop on a power trip. This type of abusive behavior on the part of law enforcement seems to be happening with more and more frequency these days. It's frightening!
If you are not guilty you have nothing to fear! /s
I eat wintergreen lifesavers like...candy...so good chance I’d have one without even thinking about it.
OTOH, there might be another side to this.
Liberty raped again. Thanks for the ping.
I note that there is absolutely no evidence or allegation that the police shot or otherwise destroyed his dog.
So man up, Mr. May, and stop the whining already!
Count yourself lucky that you’re still alive.
If there are mints in the car, I'd eat them, especially if I were to get pulled over by the police. Nervous habit.
Maybe he had just eaten some particularly pungent food. Like garlic. Just good manners.
I agree. Far more frequent criminal prosecutions for their on-the-job actions would be good, too.
Even when this criminals in blue get fired, too often they just join another department and continue their crimes.
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