A Cleveland, Tn., detective who faced separate charges in East Ridge and in Catoosa County, Ga., had both cases dismissed, attorney McCracken Poston said.
Taylor F. Thompson was charged with a move over violation in East Ridge and a DUI in Catoosa County.
He was charged in East Ridge after an officer said he did not move over to the farthest lane while he was stopped with another vehicle on Ringgold Road. Attorney Poston said the officer's body camera showed that the Thompson vehicle was never in the lane closest to the officer.
The East Ridge officer followed the detective into Georgia, resulting in a DUI stop. Attorney Poston said that case was thrown out because the test kit administered to him was expired.
Attorney Poston, who handled both cases, said, "Cleveland, Tn. Detective Taylor F. Thompson is no longer facing charges in the City of East Ridge, Tennessee, for a violation of the state move-over statute, or in Catoosa County, Georgia for driving under the influence, due to a combination of factors in the East Ridge, Tennessee and Catoosa County, Georgia cases that led to his November 24, 2019 arrest.
"There were two main factors, either of which would have warranted a directed verdict of acquittal in both states. The first factor involved the first encounter that caused the East Ridge police officer to follow the detective into Georgia. East Ridge Officer D. Boyd is overheard on his own video telling all of the Tennessee and Georgia officers reporting to the stop on I-75 in Georgia that my client failed to move over into the farthest lane after Officer Boyd had stopped another vehicle on the shoulder on Ringgold Road in East Ridge.
"But the officer's own body camera which captured those comments also show my clients car as it approached the scene and indicate the exact opposite. This is the textbook case for body cams, as our memories are not as reliable as the videos recording in the same direction the wearer is facing, capturing the very same things the witness sees, but the witness can interpret so very differently. And the officer's video shows at NO time was Detective Thompson's vehicle in the lane adjacent to Officer Boyd's vehicle.
"Even if Officer Boyd's move-over violation charge had stood (it was dismissed in East Ridge City Court on January 28, 2020, based on the video), the charge of DUI made by Catoosa County after its officers arrived on the scene in Georgia had to be dismissed because the test kit administered to Detective Thompson was expired. 'These test kits for the collection of blood alcohol have a limited shelf life," Poston explained, "because at some point the stoppers will start to dry out, and this changes the chemistry of the sample and renders the test unreliable.'
"The blood test would have been challenged for the false predicate of probable cause by the clearly mistaken East Ridge officer, and the appellate courts would have likely suppressed the evidence, 'but this public servant, a detective, also needs to be publicly exonerated on the fact that no test of blood collected in that expired vial would have ever been viable in a court of law.'"