Apparently, all you have to do is not speak English to get out of a DUI.
A police officer’s body camera captured cops allegedly letting a drunk driving suspect off because he didn’t speak English.
WFTV reported that the suspect was pulled over near a Family Dollar store. He apparently hopped a curb and ran into some bushes.
Officers Matthew McEachnie and Heath Wood attempted to communicate with him, but his English was poor. The officers then discovered a cooler filled with beer in his back seat. The officials added that the man didn’t have valid identification.
The driver said he was from Guatemala, but also didn’t have a visa or a passport, suggesting that he’s in the United States illegally. “There’s a problem because no ... license,” one of the officers says in the video. “Got a bunch of open containers in the backseat, too,” he adds.
The cop then asks him how he got into the United States, and the driver meekly responds.
“(The driver) was obviously impaired, so I called 911,” witness William Gusler told the station. The officers didn’t arrest him, prompting questions from Gusler.
“I would love to do a DUI, but I don’t feel like being (eaten) up with ‘Oh, well, he didn’t understand anything you were saying,’” Wood said before video cuts off.
Police are now reviewing a possible policy violation.
“This is disappointing. We try to rise up a little higher in our professionalism in how we investigate crimes,” Apopka police Capt. Randy Fernandez said.
