Original story from 2011:
MIAMI (CBS4) - Some Miami police officers are furious that a Florida state trooper took a Miami cop down at gunpoint and put him in handcuffs after a high speed chase through Broward County.
Trooper Donna Watts arrested Miami Officer Fausto Lopez early on the morning of October 11th. Her dashboard camera recorded the Miami officer, in a marked police car, blowing past her and other traffic on the Florida Turnpike like it was standing still. Watts radioed that Lopez was going well over 120 miles per hour, and was weaving in and out of traffic.
Cop was on his own time and was late to his second job.
http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/218682/19/Miami-cops-challenge-trooper39s-arrest-of-officerToday's story:
Miami Police Department officer Fausto Lopez was speeding in his patrol car, while off-duty, to get to his part-time job in Broward County, reaching speeds of at least 120 mph. Florida state trooper Donna Jane Watts chased him for 12 miles, weaving in and out of traffic, until he finally pulled over. In the following video of the incident, she catches up to him at about the 5-minute mark, and continues to chase him with lights and sirens on for another 2 minutes.
She approached the car with her gun drawn, ordered Lopez out of the car, cuffed him, disarmed him, and placed him in her patrol car. After holding him for more than 40 minutes, she finally cited him for reckless driving and released him.
Lopez was eventually fired, after pleading guilty to the reckless driving charge, though he at first plead not guilty and claimed he was never going anywhere near 120.
An analysis of his Florida Turnpike speed-pass data showed that in the year before his arrest, he
averaged over 90 mph on 237 days. He averaged over 100 mph on 114 days!
Well, Florida cops were not happy that Trooper Watts crossed the thin blue line and got Lopez in trouble. She started getting harassing and sometimes threatening calls on her cell phone. She found strange cars and police cruisers idling on her cul-de-sac. "Watts suspected her private driver's license information was being accessed by fellow officers, so she made a public records request with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. It turned out she was right: over a three-month period, at least 88 law enforcement officers from 25 different agencies accessed Watts' driver's license information more than 200 times, according to her lawyer."
linkThe cops set out to
wreck her life, and they pretty much did. So, in December 2012, she filed a lawsuit against the cops and agencies who were illegally accessing her information.
The suit states that Watts has been so upset about the privacy violations that she has "started to experience physical symptoms to include dry heaves and nausea when performing basic activities such as opening her mailbox, starting her ignition, or when being followed by a law enforcement vehicle for no apparent reason."
Watts began opening her mailbox from the side instead of from the front in case there was something in it.
The suit states that Watts' supervisors "do not believe that it would ever be safe for her to return to road patrol" and that Watts believes if she ever need police backup in an emergency, it would not be provided. More than a dozen troopers from her own agency also looked up her personal information.
18 U.S.C. § 2721 to §2725 prohibits accessing drivers' records for unofficial purposes, and provides for a $2500 fine for individuals caught doing it. The cops have been fighting this lawsuit for over a year now, claiming that the law only applies if someone who illegally obtains driver information uses it for financial gain. It clearly does not. It says:
§ 2723. Penalties
(a) Criminal fine.
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A person who knowingly violates this chapter shall be fined under this title.
(b) Violations by State department of motor vehicles.
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Any State department of motor vehicles that has a policy or practice of substantial noncompliance with this chapter shall be subject to a civil penalty imposed by the Attorney General of not more than $5,000 a day for each day of substantial noncompliance.
§ 2724. Civil action
(a) Cause of action.
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A person who knowingly obtains, discloses or uses personal information, from a motor vehicle record, for a purpose not permitted under this chapter shall be liable to the individual to whom the information pertains, who may bring a civil action in a United States district court.
(b) Remedies.
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The court may award
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(1)actual damages, but not less than liquidated damages in the amount of $2,500;
(2)punitive damages upon proof of willful or reckless disregard of the law;
(3) reasonable attorneys' fees and other litigation costs reasonably incurred; and
(4) such other preliminary and equitable relief as the court determines to be appropriate.
It says NOTHING about financial gain.
Some cops and agencies have already admitted misconduct and settled their lawsuits. Most have not. Just based on the automatic $2,500 fine, Watts could receive more than half a million dollars. A judge is due to decide soon on the cops' motion to dismiss the lawsuit due to their claim no financial gain was made. Shockingly, Holder's DoJ is actually defending the law, saying this is exactly the kind of thing the law was intended to prevent.
There could be a whole bunch of big, fat settlements in the next couple of months. That automatic $2,500 fine is just the tip of the iceberg. The law provides for punitive damages, too, and considering these a**holes put her in fear for her life, forced her to move, and ruined her career as a patrol officer, if these a**holes take it to a jury, they're likely to award Watts a major settlement.
The latest update is here:
http://news.yahoo.com/fla-trooper-stopped-cop-sues-harassment-093522546.html
