A Florida sheriff’s deputy a few months back pulled over a driver and proceeded to tell her that she was “holding a phone” with her “right hand,” which would be a violation of the state’s wireless communications while driving law.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy told the woman during the Feb. 11 stop in Lake Worth Beach that “we’re doing an operation for distracted driving, and you drove past me holding a phone with your right hand,” according to bodycam video of the traffic stop.
‘Hand to God — you did not have a phone in your hand?’
But there was a big problem with that accusation.
The driver quickly lifted up her right arm and showed the deputy that she has no right hand. In fact, it appears most of her right forearm is missing too.
The motorist laughed and told the deputy, “So, obviously not!”
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The woman then asked the deputy, “So, you wanna just call this a day, or …?”
But the deputy persisted: “I don’t want to call it day — you had a hand up manipulating a phone.”
The woman argued back, “You just said my right hand.”
The deputy replied that he “thought” he saw her “right hand.”
She then insisted, “You didn’t” — and then held up her arm with no right hand and moved it closer to the open driver-side window.
“You didn’t see me with my right hand,” she added.
The deputy persisted and asked the woman if she had a phone in her hand, not specifying right hand or left hand.
“I did not,” she replied.
Almost comically, the deputy came back with, “Hand to God — you did not have a phone in your hand?”
The woman then raised her right arm that lacked a hand and replied, “Hand to God.”
The deputy then asked, “Your other hand to God — you didn’t have a phone in your hand?”
The woman then raised her left arm — which has a hand attached — and repeated, “Hand to God.”
With that, the deputy issued her a citation anyway for “wireless communication handheld while driving” — and the pair began sparring again before the deputy acknowledged to her that he did, in fact, say that he saw her holding a phone in her right hand and that she can take the citation to court.
The woman posted video of the traffic stop on TikTok, WPEC-TV reported, and as you can imagine, the station said the case drew widespread attention.
What’s more, the station said the civil penalty amounted to $116.
Naturally, the woman said she requested a hearing date and planned to fight the citation in court, WPEC said.
But it turns out that it wouldn’t be necessary.
RELATED: Police stop bicycle-riding male for traffic violation; turns out he has a gun and then runs from cop. It doesn’t end well.
WPEC said a hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday of this week — May 26 — but the hearing was canceled after the case was dropped.
In fact, court records show the citation was dismissed at the request of the deputy who issued it, the station said.
WPEC added in a video short published Friday that the incident is now “under agency review.”
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