When police stopped Ammon Fepuleai at a DUI checkpoint in Hawaii, body camera footage shows an officer telling him he smelled “the odor of alcohol.” Fepuleai seemed surprised and told the officer he did not drink. Fepuleai agreed to a field breath test which showed no alcohol in his system. That’s when the officers said they believed he was under the influence of drugs and arrested him. On the drive to jail, an officer turned off his body camera—in violation of department rules. Fepuleai said that’s when the officer told him he should refuse further tests at the jail to save time. Fepuleai agreed but came to believe he’d been set up. Prosecutors later dismissed charges against him for lack of evidence. Jonathan Burge, an attorney in Hawaii who specializes in traffic cases, told local media that other clients have told him that cops tell them to refuse other further tests when arrested at DUI checkpoints. Burge, a former police officer, said cops are under pressure to make arrests at these checkpoints because they are being paid overtime.
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