Florida Police Officer Confuses Donut Glaze with Meth
There are at least two things all cops should know: what meth looks like, and definitely what donuts look like. Cpl. Shelby Riggs-Hopkins of the Orlando Police Department apparently missed this memo.
Last December, Riggs-Hopkins pulled over 64-year-old Daniel Rushing for rushin— uh speeding. Rushing had just dropped off one of his neighbors at their chemotherapy treatment center, and when Riggs-Hopkins pulled him over, he was giving an elderly friend a lift home from work. Spoiler alert: he gets arrested.
Donut arrest me, officer, I’m innocent:
Things started to get tense when Officer Riggs-Hopkins noticed a concealed-weapons permit in Rushing’s wallet as he retrieved his drivers license. He admitted to having a weapon on his person and stepped out of his car upon Riggs-Hopkins’s request. That’s when she saw it — a rock of donut glaze on the driver-side floorboard.
“I recognized through my eleven years of training and experience as a law enforcement officer the substance to be some sort of narcotic,” reads the arrest report.
Indeed, Riggs-Hopkins didn’t see donut glaze. She saw drugs. Meth, probably. And when she field-tested the substance a first time, then a second time, the donut glaze tested positive for amphetamines (a not-so-flattering moment for field-tests). That was that. She read Rushing his Miranda rights, he tried to tell her that the meth was actually Krispie Kreme donut glaze, and he was whisked away to the clink.
Daniel Rushing ended up spending about ten hours in jail for his possession of a glazed substance. And of course, somebody had to pay his $2,500 bond before he could even think about going home. If you can’t pay the fine, don’t do the crine. Crime.
Justice is… served?
Florida’s state crime laboratory took six weeks to process Rushing’s donut glaze, meaning he was pretty much guilty until proven innocent. The Orlando police department doesn’t really seem to feel very sorry about it. Which is weird, because you’d think they’d have to explain why their field-tests couldn’t distinguish drugs from donut glaze. And you also might think, incorrectly, that they’d give an official “nevermind” after arresting a man for what are now incontestably wrong reasons. In a statement, they declared the arrest was lawful.
Now, a frustrated Daniel Rushing is preparing to press charges against the city, since he was arrested for “no reason at all.” He’s starting the legal process exactly how anyone his position should: by hiring a lawyer. At Turner Law Offices, P.C., our team of attorneys has years of experience working with clients across a wide range of cases, including those involving false arrests. If you or a loved one has been arrested on illegitimate grounds, it’s likely that your eligible for compensation — and the first step in lawsuit-filing is always to seek out legal representation you can trust. Call today, or go online to set up your free initial consultation, and meet with a skilled lawyer who’s ready and waiting to guide you toward the justice you deserve.
