He has pleaded not guilty and remains on active duty, said his lawyer, Michael Li.
The crash happened during an annual tournament to raise money for the department’s hostage negotiation team. Alcohol was served at the event attended by many officers and department brass.
What an idiot.
Police raid underage party and point AR15’s at kids.
Thank you police for pointing guns at people in their own homes and protecting me from that kid drinking a beer.
I believe the police said they came to the house because of a disturbance call. The caller said they heard a gun shot. So basically, cops can claim that someone reported a gun shot and use this as legal justification to break into your home and point guns at people and beat them and have them bitten by drug dogs.
Incredible.
Advocates for tougher DUI enforcement are concerned about that ruling.
“I think we have to protect the rights of individuals, even offenders, but we also have to protect the rights of innocent victims,” said Dave Brown, whose daughter, granddaughter and unborn grandson were killed by a drunken driver. Brown believes police ought to have a variety of tools at their disposal when determining whether someone is driving drunk.
“If he passes a Breathalyzer test, then maybe I’m going to agree that you don’t have the authority to draw blood, but up until that point, it looks to me that all the tools should still be on the table.”
Others say it’s just as important that people’s rights be protected.
Nashville attorney Ed Ryan says if police don’t have probable cause to make an arrest, then innocent people are going to pay the price.
“You don’t just throw away a person’s constitutional right not to be arrested just because it’s a DUI case,” Ryan said.
…police improperly conducted a warrantless search of Eric Hemingway’s car - violating the Fourth Amendment - and that the subsequent arrest of Hemingway and seizure of physical evidence from his vehicle were fruits of that illegal search.
U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts: “An open container in a car is not contraband unless it contains alcohol. Here, the officer could not see in the container, he did not testify that the driver or passenger said that it contained alcohol, and his testimony about smelling alcohol before the arrest was discredited. Suspicion … is not enough to establish probable cause.” … He continues, “The length of the police interaction with the defendant and the condition of the can did nothing to overcome the fact that the officer could not see if any alcohol was in the can. Nor did any mere suspicion by the officer that the defendant or his passenger had been drinking from the can in the car earlier give the officer authority to make a warrantless arrest for a misdemeanor that was not committed in his presence.”
