The man wrongly arrested by Florida police when the authorities mistook doughnut glaze in his car as meth has been given a $37,500 in settlement.
The Orlando Sentinel talked to Daniel Rushing, the “victim” of the wrongful accusation, and he shared that he received a check last week from Orlando City.
Rushing was arrested in December 2015 when Cpl. Shelby Riggs-Hopkins saw flakes of glaze on his car’s floorboard and assumed that those were pieces of crystal methamphetamine. Rushing tried to explain that those were likely sugar or crumbs from Krispy Kreme doughnuts he’d eaten, but roadside drug tests conducted by the Orlando police yielded positive for the illegal substance. Rushing was then arrested on a drug possession charge with a firearm. He spent 10 hours in jail before being freed after posting bond.
In that December 2015 incident, an Orlando police officer pulled Rushing over for failing to come to a full stop while getting out of a 7-11 store- then a suspected drug transaction hotspot. It is a coincidence then that deputies had been in the middle of a drug stake out. It didn’t help that they saw what appeared to be white rocky substance they mistook for meth on Rushing’s car floor near his feet.
A state crime lab test by the Florida Department of Law enforcement later cleared Rushing several weeks after being apprehended on the road. Results from the crime lab test showed that the substance found on his car floor was actually sugar remnants from popular Krispy Kreme’s signature glazed doughnut. Rushing then filed a lawsuit against the city for false results of the road drug test.
The two parties, however, agreed to settle, and Rushing received $37, 500 from the City of Orlando.
Orlando Police also had to train more than 730 officers on how to properly use the drug field-test kits.
Riggs-Hopkins was also given a written reprimand for making an improper arrest.
As for Rushing, his ordeal with the doughnut remnants and the wrongful arrest has not stopped him from indulging his sweet tooth cravings for the said doughnut every other Wednesday. What he tries to avoid, however, is eating his favorite sweets inside his car.
Now that he’s $37, 500 richer, Rushing can indulge more of his favorite doughnut, and even treat family and friends for some boxes of it.
Source:
http://www.fox29.com/unusual/sweet-man-arrested-for-doughnut-glaze-gets-37500_
