Florida Man Arrested; Doughnut Flakes Test Positive for Meth

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Florida Man Arrested; Doughnut Flakes Test Positive for Meth
By The Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. — Jul 28, 2016, 1:53 PM ET



Daniel Rushing probably won't be eating Krispy Kreme doughnuts in his car any more.

The 64-year-old was arrested on drug charges when Orlando police officers spotted four tiny flakes of glaze on his floorboard and thought they were pieces of crystal methamphetamine, The Orlando Sentinel (http://bit.ly/2aj43V6) reports.

Cpl. Shelby Riggs-Hopkins wrote in an arrest report that during a traffic stop on Dec. 11, she noticed the flakes on the floorboard. Two roadside drug tests were positive for the illegal substance and Rushing was arrested. But a state crime lab test cleared him several weeks later.

"It was incredible," Rushing said. "It feels scary when you haven't done anything wrong and get arrested. ... It's just a terrible feeling."

It started on a Friday afternoon when Rushing dropped off a neighbor at a hospital for a weekly chemotherapy session. Then, he drove to a convenience store to pick up a friend who needed a ride home.

Riggs-Hopkins said she was staking out the area for drug activity. Rushing told her he had a concealed weapons permit, according to an arrest report. She asked him to step out of his car and noticed a "rock like substance" on the floorboard.

"I recognized through my eleven years of training and experience as a law enforcement officer the substance to be some sort of narcotic," she wrote.

Rushing agreed to a vehicle search. "I didn't have anything to hide," he said. "I'll never let anyone search my car again."

Riggs-Hopkins and other officers spotted three other pieces of the substance.

"I kept telling them, 'That's ... glaze from a doughnut," Rushing said.

He was charged with possession of methamphetamine with a firearm and spent 10 hours in jail before being released on bond.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement told the newspaper that an analyst in its Orlando crime lab didn't try to identify what police found in the car, only to determine whether it was an illegal drug. They determined it wasn't, and three days after Rushing's arrest, the State Attorney's Office dropped the charges.

Rushing, who retired after 25 years as an Orlando parks department employee, told the newspaper he has hired a lawyer and plans to sue the city because he was arrested "for no reason at all."

Orlando police said in a statement that the arrest was lawful.

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Information from: Orlando Sentinel, http://www.orlandosentinel.com/

[Sassy Squatch]

LMAO

[44yearsandcounting]

One would think an officer with 11 years of experience would be able to identify donut glaze.

[Rain Man]

One would think an officer with 11 years of experience would be able to identify donut glaze.

I see what you did there.

[listopencil]

I wonder if drug traffickers could smuggle meth disguised as doughnut glaze?

[44yearsandcounting]

Particularly horrifying is either the accuracy of the field chemical tests used, (article mentions two), or the contents of Krispy Kreme's donut glaze.

[listopencil]

Particularly horrifying is either the accuracy of the field chemical tests used, (article mentions two), or the contents of Krispy Kreme's donut glaze.

Have you tried the new Blue Sky berry flavored doughnuts from Krispy Kreme? They're absolutely addictive!

[Buzz]

I like it when the wife makes me look like a glazed doughnut.

[suzzer99]

Really good heartbreaking article about how easily these field drug tests give false positives (https://www.propublica.org/article/common-roadside-drug-test-routinely-produces-false-positives), and the defendant does a plea bargain before ever finding out the real lab tests come back negative. In the feature case the woman wound up with a felony that wrecked her life.

The field tests seem simple, but a lot can go wrong. Some tests, including the one the Houston police officers used to analyze the crumb on the floor of Albritton’s car, use a single tube of a chemical called cobalt thiocyanate, which turns blue when it is exposed to cocaine. But cobalt thiocyanate also turns blue when it is exposed to more than 80 other compounds, including methadone, certain acne medications and several common household cleaners. Other tests use three tubes, which the officer can break in a specific order to rule out everything but the drug in question — but if the officer breaks the tubes in the wrong order, that, too, can invalidate the results. The environment can also present problems. Cold weather slows the color development; heat speeds it up, or sometimes prevents a color reaction from taking place at all. Poor lighting on the street — flashing police lights, sun glare, street lamps — often prevents officers from making the fine distinctions that could make the difference between an arrest and a release.

[stevieray]

Florida Man Arrested; Doughnut Flakes Test Positive for Meth


"I recognized through my eleven years of training and experience as a law enforcement officer the substance to be some sort of narcotic," she wrote.
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IT ISN'T ABOUT YOU.

[scho63]

Nice post for sure but belongs in the Florida thread.

[GloucesterChief]

Really good heartbreaking article about how easily these field drug tests give false positives (https://www.propublica.org/article/common-roadside-drug-test-routinely-produces-false-positives), and the defendant does a plea bargain before ever finding out the real lab tests come back negative. In the feature case the woman wound up with a felony that wrecked her life.

I am sure if they go to the Supreme Court to get them thrown out the Supreme Court will protect them like they did Probable Cause Generation Devices ie Drug Dogs which have never shown suitably accurate independent detection in blind experiments. The false positive rate on drug sniffing dogs is astronomical.

[Indian Chief]

Shit like this genuinely scares me. Moral of the story? Don't eat in your car people.

[DaNewGuy]

And yet my guy can't get dick