Winterset, Madison County, Iowa. The City of Winterset agreed to pay GRL’s client $86,000.00 to settle a wrongful arrest case brought against Winterset Police Officer, Logan Camp and the City of Winterset.
In a lawsuit that captured media attention, GRL’s Government Accountability section sued Winterset Police Officer, Logan Camp, after he arrested and charged GRL’s client with Operating While Intoxicated and Child Endangerment even though he passed field sobriety tests and provided a breath sample of half the legal limit. The criminal charges were ultimately dismissed when it became clear that GRL’s client had not broken the law.
The case is a classic example of overzealous policing based upon misinformation and a misunderstanding of Iowa’s operating while intoxicated laws. The video recording of the stop disproved Officer Camp’s claims that GRL’s client failed field sobriety testing. Medicine and science disproved Officer Camp’s back-up contention that GRL’s client was impaired by the lowest possible dose of anti-anxiety medication that can be prescribed.
Law enforcement has been whipped into a tizzy by misinformation provided to officers by way of Drug Recognition Examinations and Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Examination training programs. The result are over zealous officers who use this training to conclude that perfectly law abiding citizens are impaired by substances other than alcohol, simply because of their performance on field sobriety exercises. Hopefully, this settlement is a start in the right direction of bringing a little bit of common sense back into law enforcement.
