Earlier this month ProPublica published a lengthy article the horrible rate of false positives produced by common roadside drug tests used by law enforcement. Potentially tens of thousands of people are serving prison sentences due to faulty drug tests performed during traffic stops. The Orlando Sentinel reports on a case in Florida where doughnut glaze tested positive as meth.
Daniel Rushing treats himself to a Krispy Kreme doughnut every other Wednesday. He used to eat them in his car.
Not anymore.
Not since a pair of Orlando police officers pulled him over, spotted four tiny flakes of glaze on his floorboard and arrested him, saying they were pieces of crystal methamphetamine.
The officers did two roadside drug tests and both came back positive for the illegal substance, according to his arrest report.
He was handcuffed, arrested, taken to the county jail and strip searched, he said.
A state crime lab, however, did another test several weeks later and cleared him.
“It was incredible,” he said. “It feels scary when you haven’t done anything wrong and get arrested. … It’s just a terrible feeling.”
Rushing, 64, of Orlando was arrested about 1 p.m. Dec. 11 at Robinson Street and Parramore Avenue. He had just dropped off a neighbor at the hospital for a chemotherapy session — something he did every Friday, he said — then went to the 7-Eleven store at 938 W. Colonial Drive to give another friend a ride home, he said.
She’s elderly, a church friend and works there.
The officer who made the arrest, Cpl. Shelby Riggs-Hopkins, an eight-year department veteran, had staked out the 7-Eleven because of complaints about drug activity, she wrote in her report.
She pulled over Rushing because he failed to come to a full stop before pulling out of the convenience store parking lot and because he was driving 42 mph in a 30 mph zone, according to her report.
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