DUI patrol keeps eye on evidence

By SARAH MISHKIN
Published July 1, 2007

TAMPA - The black sedan weaves slightly to the left, and the driver remembers the turn signal while halfway over the lane line.

Hillsborough sheriff's Deputy Beau Dobson turns on his cruiser's videocamera to record the driver in front of him. That carelessness could mean a tired driver, or a driver fiddling with the radio. But at 11:30 p.m. on a Friday, it also could mean a drunken driver.

Dobson follows the sedan for a few minutes. The sedan stays in the middle of its lane, at the speed limit. He turns off the camera.

"He was probably just an inattentive driver, " Dobson says. "I've pulled people over, and they were texting messages."

Dobson is part of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Operation 3D, a countywide effort to target drunken drivers.

The "wolf pack, " as its members call it, saturates different areas of the county on weekends and holidays, setting up mobile breath alcohol testing centers - BATmobiles - to reduce the processing time of each arrest for impaired driving.

Friday night, the pack patrolled western Hillsborough County, a county known for its high rate of traffic fatalities. The night was slower than expected, said Cpl. William Porter, and the pack arrested five people on DUI charges and one person on a drug charge.

Porter said the DUI operation usually has more cases, but half the squad was out of town at a training symposium.

Hillsborough deputies have been working under increased public scrutiny in recent weeks, following the department's decision to fire Deputy Daniel Brock for his handling of drunken driving cases.

An internal review found that Brock had arrested 58 people with blood-alcohol content below 0.08, the level at which a driver is presumed impaired. Internal investigators concluded that his cases often lacked other evidence, such as bad driving or videotapes of poorly performed sobriety field tests, to back up his arrests. He disputes this.

Deputies out on Friday night were adamant that Brock's case should not reflect on other deputies. Their field sobriety tests are based on nationally recognized standards, deputies said, and they need to know that their cases could stand if challenged in court.

Hillsborough prosecutors decided to drop 65 of Brock's arrests between October 2005 and October 2006.

Patrol car nearly hit

About 12:45 a.m., a call came across Dobson's radio. A newer deputy wants to know if it is it legal to stop a driver on suspicion of DUI after the driver drove over a curb and nearly hit a marked patrol car?

Yes, Dobson said, that's enough.

Dobson drives to Campus Lodge Apartments, where Detective Lenora Johnson had been working an off-duty job as a security officer. The driver had been pulling into the parking lot when his white pickup truck jumped a curb, clipped the hedge and narrowly missed Johnson's bumper.

Dobson gets the driver, Charles Edward Jackson, out of his truck, and asks him to walk along one of the lot's painted lines. Jackson protests that knee surgery means he cannot keep his balance properly.

"This is ridiculous, man, I have medical proof, " he says.

Dobson brings him in front of his patrol car, in view of his car's videocamera. He asks Jackson to close his eyes and touch his nose. Jackson has trouble following the instructions, raising his left hand when asked to raise his right.

He finally raises the correct hand. He hits his upper lip.

Dobson arrests him and puts him in the back of the cruiser for transport to the BATmobile. Jackson swears he's not drunk.

"I passed all your field sobriety tests, I hope you have it on video, " he says.

"Oh, I do, " Dobson says.

Arrest takes 3 hours

At the BATmobile, Jackson registers a 0.157, nearly twice the level at which the law presumes impairment. The arrest takes three hours, between performing the field tests and finishing the 10-page report.

While writing the report, Dobson realized one thing went wrong: The audio malfunctioned and recorded only static.

"The audio would have been excellent, " Dobson says. But he's not too worried. Only one in his last 100 arrest went to trial, and he doubts this one will.

Sarah Mishkin can be reached at (813) 225-3110 or smishkin@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 1, 2007, 02:14:26]