Donna “Jane” Watts, the Florida state trooper who pulled over a Miami officer clocked at 120 mph in his police cruiser, has filed a $1 million lawsuit against various state and local police agencies for accessing her personal information and basically stalking her because of the highly publicized arrest.
The arrest in question in shown in the video below.
Watts claims that after the incident in which she pulled over and cuffed the Miami officer, other cops in the surrounding jurisdictions began trying to intimidate her by accessing her home address and other details. Reportedly, there were random calls, some of which were threatening, pranks, and suspicious vehicles stopping in front of her driveway.
As a result, she alleges that she fears for her personal safety and has become a virtual hermit. The lawsuit claims her driver’s license information has been improperly accessed at least 200 times by 88 law enforcement agencies in 25 jurisdictions in Florida.
According to the Florida Sun Sentinel , her policing career has effectively ended:
“The suit states that Watts’ supervisors ‘do not believe that it would ever be safe for her to return to road patrol’ and that Watts believes if she ever need police backup in an emergency, it would not be provided. More than a dozen troopers from her own agency also looked up her personal information.”
Trooper Watts claims to be physically ill from the harassment and the invasion of her privacy.
The Miami cop involved in the October 2011 speeding incident was fired in September 2012. His excuse at the time was he was late for a private detail job.
South Florida officers in general apparently have a very poor record of complying with the speed limits they are supposed to enforce (see second video below).
Do you think that Trooper Watts is a hero for enforcing the law against fellow officers?
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