ORLANDO, Fla.: Daniel Rushing treats himself to a Krispy Kreme doughnut every other Wednesday. He used to eat them in his car. Not anymore.
Not since two Orlando police officers pulled him over, spotted four tiny flakes of glaze on his floorboard and arrested him, saying they were pieces of crystal methamphetamine.
The officers did two roadside drug tests, and both came back positive for the illegal substance, an arrest report said.
He was handcuffed, arrested, taken to the county jail and strip searched, he said.
A state crime lab, however, did another test several weeks later and cleared him.
“It feels scary when you haven’t done anything wrong and get arrested,” he said.
Rushing, 64, of Orlando, was arrested on Dec. 11. He had just dropped off a neighbor at the hospital, then went to a 7-Eleven store to give another friend a ride home.
The officer who made the arrest, Cpl. Shelby Riggs-Hopkins, an eight-year department veteran, had staked out the store because of complaints about drug activity, she wrote in her report.
She pulled over Rushing because he failed to come to a full stop before pulling out of the parking lot and because he was driving 42 mph in a 30 mph zone, according to her report.
When Rushing opened his wallet, she saw that he had a concealed weapons permit.
She booked him into the county jail on a charge of possession of methamphetamine with a firearm. He was locked up for about 10 hours before his release on $2,500 bond, he said.