- 41 DUI cases tied to one trooper were dismissed by prosecutors.
- 22 drivers reportedly had no drugs or alcohol in their system.
- Trooper resigned in 2024, but cases weren’t cited in personnel file.
Prosecutors in Tennessee have dismissed 41 DUI cases tied to a single highway patrol trooper, after determining that many of the drivers were either within the legal limit or completely sober.
The news comes after the state admitted that it hass arrested thousands of individuals for driving drunk despite tests proving that they had no alcohol or drugs in their system. It turns out, the issue isn’t just tied to Tennessee either.
More: Sober Drivers Are Getting Arrested For DUI And The Reason Will Make You Furious
Regarding the 41 dismissed cases, they all tie back to Asa Pearl, a trooper who worked with the department from 2021 through 2024. Eight drivers, including Ron LaFlamme, reportedly had no substances detected at all.
LaFlamme said he was caught off guard when he was asked to perform a field sobriety test during the traffic stop, calling the arrest wrongful after tests later cleared him.
Trooper Background And Case Dismissals
According to WSMV, Pearl resigned from the Tennessee Highway Patrol in 2024, though his personnel file reportedly lists no reason for his departure and does not reference the dismissed DUI cases. Requests for comment from Pearl and the Tennessee Highway Patrol went unanswered.
As we’ve covered, THP Colonel Matt Perry believes DUI arrests can be totally justified even when drivers have no drugs or alcohol in their system.
“We have not had one case where our experts said, ‘This person should not have been arrested,’” Perry testified. “Every review we’ve done, there’s evidence. There are indicators.”
Sober Arrests Beyond Tennessee
Here’s the wild twist in this story. Sober DUI arrests aren’t an issue in Tennessee alone. WSMV found examples of the situation in 20 different states nationwide. That information comes from publicly available data. There’s a good chance that it’s happening even more in cases where the data never sees the light of day.
A study in JAMA from 2023 shows that officers failed over 49 percent of sober people who took field sobriety tests. That’s quite a lot of false positives. Right now, there’s no clear regulatory path forward either.
Different states use different methods of determining sobriety, and not all objective testing equipment can cover all the potential factors that could cause someone to fail a field sobriety test. The only surefire method to avoid conviction is to be 100% sober and force law enforcement to prove that you’re otherwise. Of course, that can only happen after an arrest.