How to Get Arrested in Arizona for DUI With a BAC of 0.00: Be Black Deseret News Sober man gets arrested for DUI in Arizona By Michael Smith , Deseret News Published: Monday, June 10 2013 1:10 p.m. MDT 64-year-old Jessie Thornton was arrested for DUI in Surprise, Ariz., even though he registered a 0.000 on a breathalyzer test. (YouTube.com) 64-year-old Jessie Thornton was arrested for DUI in Surprise, Ariz., even though he registered a 0.000 on a breathalyzer test. (YouTube.com) A 64-year-old man was arrested for DUI in Surprise, Ariz., even though he registered a 0.000 on a breathalyzer test. The Daily Mail reports Jessie Thornton was pulled over at 11 p.m. last week by police after they saw him crossing the white line of his lane. "He [the officer] walked up and he said 'I can tell you're driving DUI by looking in your eyes,'" Thornton told ABC 15 in Arizona. "I said, âIâve been swimming at LA Fitness,â and he says, âI think youâre DUI ⦠weâre going to do a sobriety test.â I said, âOK, but I got bad knees and a bad hip with surgery in two days.â" Documents showed Thornton indeed was scheduled to have hip replacement surgery two days after the incident. Two additional officers came to the scene to conduct a 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,'" Thornton said. After the test, he was placed in handcuffs and told to sit on the curb. Thornton was then taken to the police station and was given a breathalyzer test. There wasn't a trace of alcohol in his system. He registered a blood alcohol content of 0.000. After taking the breathalyzer, a drug recognition expert was called in to test Thornton, and reportedly told the retired firefighter, "I would never have arrested you.â The expert wrote a statement that read â...in my opinion Jessie was never under the influence of drugs or alcohol,â according to Gawker. By the time the expert cleared him, his car had been impounded and the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division had been told of his arrest. "I then get this message that my license is being suspended and I have to take some sort of drinking class or something," Thornton said. Thornton told ABC 15 it wasn't DUI. "It was driving while black," he said. "I've been stopped 10 times in Surprise and given four tickets, it's amazing." "This was a case of D-W-B â driving while black," said Marc Victor, Thornton's attorney. Thornton is suing the Sunrise Police Department for $50,000. "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," Thornton said. The DUI charge was dropped, but Victor's office claims that's not enough. "Here he [Jessie] is being harassed for no other reason than the color of his skin," said attorney Charity Clark. "It's frustrating that somebody had to go through this type of experience, they poke and prod him and arrest him for nothing." Michael Smith is an intern in the news section of DeseretNews.com. A 2013 graduate of the University of Utah, he will be attending Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism in the fall. Copyright 2013, Deseret News Publishing Company http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865581428/Sober-man-gets-arrested-for-DUI-in-Arizona.html
Shit happens but because he is black and made it a race issue he'll get more than he deserves from the police department.