A Tennessee man who was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated is suing the state and two state troopers for $1 million, claiming he was wrongfully arrested and detained for DWI despite being stone cold sober.
The trouble all began for Thomas Manis last December when he was pulled over on U.S. 411 in Monroe County because officers believed his window tint was too dark. Trooper Riley Shreiner conversed with Manis before asking him to provide his license, registration and proof of insurance, which Manis produced. Shreiner went back to his patrol car and shared Manis’ name with his colleague, Officer William Yates-Matoy. Despite Shreiner telling Yates-Matoy that he “saw no evidence of intoxication, nor did he smell marijuana,” Officer Yates-Matoy “guaranteed” that Manis had marijuana in his vehicle because Yates-Matoy knew the defendant’s brother.
Shreiner returned to the vehicle and began asking Manis about his drug use, which Manis denied. However, officers escalated the situation by demanding that Manis perform field sobriety tests. Manis allegedly passed the all the field sobriety tests and told officers it had been four years since he had smoked marijuana. Still unsatisfied with the interaction, officers administered more tests on Manis before placing him under arrest for DUI.
Completely Sober DUI
Manis was handcuffed and placed in the back of the squad car before being taken to the police station to be booked. Manis was more than happy to submit to a blood test, as he knew the results would be clean, and sure enough, that test ultimately found no drugs or alcohol in his system.
Despite this fact, Manis “spent several hours in jail, his mugshot was taken and made publicly available, and his vehicle was seized and towed to the police impound yard,” says the complaint against the State of Tennessee. Months later, in April, all charges against Manis were eventually dropped. However, that doesn’t mean Manis is done with the state. He is suing for unlawful seizure, false arrest, illegal search, false imprisonment and assault. He is seeking $1 million in compensatory damages and an unannounced amount in punitive damages.
Simply put, this is just awful police work by the two troopers in Tennessee. It doesn’t matter if you brother is Al Capone or your sister is Bonnie Parker, a familial connection to someone who has had run-ins with the law isn’t even remotely close to establishing probable cause to search a vehicle or move forward with an arrest for DUI absent any concrete evidence. It seems like officer Yates-Matoy assumed he could do whatever he wanted because he figured that the ends would justify the means, but now he, his department and the state of Tennessee are in clear legal trouble for violating the rights of its citizens. We hope that Manis gets every penny he’s asking for in his lawsuit.
