Body camera footage caught an officer apparently opening a new bottle of liquor and then later claiming it was already open
April 5, 2024 at 17:39
- A Florida man was arrested for DUI, despite a video that appears to show an officer opening a bottle of liquor and then pouring it out.
- While only a short amount of footage has been released, the officer appears to have originally claimed to have smelt marijuana.
- The police department said they investigated the incident, but didn’t find any evidence of misconduct.
The Tallahassee Police Department is under fire after bodycams apparently caught an officer crossing the line and then lying about it. Despite the damning footage, the department claimed they “thoroughly reviewed the incident and did not find any evidence of misconduct.”
That being said, a number of people are in disbelief after seeing a video posted by Our Tallahassee. It shows Calvin Riley being pulled over by Officer Kiersten Oliver, and then being asked to step out of his vehicle after refusing to do “voluntary” field sobriety tests.
He’s then placed in handcuffs as the officer says he was driving on a suspended license. The video then skips ahead and shows the officer asking Riley if he smoked marijuana as she claimed to have smelt it in the vehicle. He denies this and the officer eventually begins searching his Mercedes.
This is where things take a dramatic turn as Oliver finds an apparently unopened bottle of liquor. As you can see in the video, the bottle appears full and it sounds like the cap is being opened for the first time shortly before she begins pouring it out. Oliver then tosses the bottle back into the car, before later claiming there was an open alcohol container in the vehicle. In particular, she claims he had a mixed drink as well as a bottle of vodka.
The officers then shut off their bodycams as the publication shows an arrest report claiming a “search of Riley’s car yielded a small bottle of vodka that was opened, in a pocket on the driver’s side seat cover.” It goes on to say there was a cup in the center console that smelled like an alcoholic beverage. This led to Riley being arrested for driving under the influence.
While the clip shows less than three minutes of footage, the entire video is said to be 44 minutes long. Given this, it’s hard to fully judge the situation. However, the publication says no marijuana was found and Riley told officers the cup contained Arizona Green Tea. This seems possible as the unaired footage reportedly showed bottles of the beverage in the backseat.
The publication also posted depositions of Oliver, where she reportedly claimed to have poured out the liquor bottle because department policy prevented them from “impounding liquids as evidence.” However, that doesn’t appear to be the case and Riley’s lawyer contends opening the bottle and destroying the seal is significant.
The video has unleashed a firestorm and the department responded by saying “We have thoroughly reviewed the incident and did not find any evidence of misconduct. We are confident with the charges and we respect the judicial process and believe it is vital for a fair trial.”
Police Chief Lawrence Revell then claimed the release of the video, which reportedly occurred two days before Riley’s trial, was an attempt to “sway a jury” as well as an effort to manipulate the judicial process. He finished by saying, “We assure the public that we will continue to do our part to ensure justice is served while upholding the principles of fairness, transparency, and integrity.”
It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out, but HuffPost said Riley told officers he had a couple of drinks at a bar before being pulled over. However, it’s not immediately clear if he was given a breathalyzer test.