A sober man got a DUI this week because he “looked drunk.”
According to the Daily Mail , Jessie Thornton, 64, was pulled over this weekend in Surprise, Arizona for drunk driving. But Thornton wasn’t drunk. He took a breathalyzer test and registered a 0.000 blood alcohol level. Still, officers arrested the sober man for a DUI because they just knew that he was drunk.
Thornton said : “‘An officer walked up and he said ‘I can tell you’re driving DUI by looking in your eyes.’ I take my glasses off and he says, ‘You’ve got bloodshot eyes.’ I do the breathalyzer and it comes back zero, zero, zero.”
The 64-year-old man was then taken to the police station where he was examined by a DRE, drug recognition expert.
Thornton told ABC News : “After he did all the tests, he says, ‘I would never have arrested you, you show no signs of impairment.’ ”
Thornton wasn’t drinking that night but he still suffered the consequences of a DUI. His car was impounded and the Arizona MVD suspended his license and ordered that he take a drinking and driving class.
Thornton is now filing a claim against the city of Surprise for $50,000. The 64-year-old man said that the real reason why he was pulled over is that he was “driving while black.”
Thornton said: “It was driving while black. I just don’t want any of this to happen to somebody else.”
Here’s a video about the sober man who got a DUI in Arizona.
The DUI charges were recently dropped against Thornton but he is still seeking damages from the incident.
His attorney Marc Victor said: “This is a case of D-W-B, driving while black … This is not the way American citizens ought to be treated by officers or treated by anybody for that matter.”
