Trooper sues more than 100 cops for harassment after pulling over Miami police officer

This happened in Miami, Florida. A female Florida State Trooper pulled over and arrested a Miami cop for driving over 100mph(~160km/hr). The arrested cop was not responding to an emergency and was subsequently fired as a result this. The story did not end, the State Trooper was targeted and harassed by other cops because of this and has now filed a lawsuit.

Florida Highway Patrol trooper Donna Jane Watts was just doing her job when she pulled over a Miami police officer for topping speeds of 120 mph, but the fallout has been anything but routine: She’s now suing her colleagues for harassment.
According to the Florida-based Sun-Sentinel, Watts has filed a lawsuit against more than 100 police officers and agencies for illegally accessing her personal information and creating a “life-threatening situation.”
Watts claims the harassment by law enforcement began after she pulled over Miami cop FaUsto Lopez in October 2011 for speeding in his patrol car. Traveling well over 100 mph, Lopez was reportedly weaving in and out of lanes so fast it took Watts seven minutes to pull him over even with her lights flashing and sirens blaring.

rt.com...

To me this is proof that an alarming number of police officers will not only protect fellow officers who have committed crimes, they will attempt to silence good police officers who do the right thing and take action against corrupt cops.

More stupidity, from people that are holding public positions for Safety. 100+mphs, he's lucky it only ended with him being pulled over, he coud have killed someone, I wonder how many of his police buddies would be backing him up, if he had killed someone. They sure dont think very far, past what they see

reply to post by jrod


Miami FOP

Miami FOP defends speeding offficer

The Miami Fraternal Order of Police defended one of its officers who FHP said was pulled over by a state trooper while driving a Miami police cruiser 120 mph on Florida's Turnpike.

Officer Fausto Lopez, 35, was charged with reckless driving in the Oct. 11 incident. An FHP trooper pulled Lopez over in the southbound lanes of Florida's Turnpike near Hollywood Boulevard after following him for 12 miles in seven minutes at speeds reaching 120 mph, police said.

The police officer drew her weapon when Lopez finally pulled over, then handcuffed him.

She (trooper) better not wind up like Christopher Dorner

reply to post by Glassbender777


Had he crashed and killed people, going off past precedents he would have likely got away with it. Here is a previous thread with that exact scenario:

CHARGES DISMISSED: State trooper- 100mph; kills one woman; injures another; child through windshield

Truly above the law!

reply to post by jrod


reply to post by jrod

This happened in Miami, Florida. A female Florida State Trooper pulled over and arrested a Miami cop for driving over 100mph(~160km/hr). The arrested cop was not responding to an emergency and was subsequently fired as a result this....

Hmmmmm, if you're an off duty cop speeding in gross excess of the limit, you get fired, but you get put on paid vacation if you're an on duty officer and you blow granny away because you mistook her TV remote for a gun after you chose the wrong address for a drug bust and kicked the wrong door in? A strange lack of balance, imo.

This trooper is in effect a rare LE "whistlblower" who was doing her job to protect and serve. I hope she wins and all who are persecuting her get nailed. She did what she was supposed to do. She didn't have any say in sentence, nor any say in his firing. If the crybaby cops down there want to persecute someone, maybe they should man up, stick out their big tough guy chests, and go after whatever higher-up fired their leadfoot buddy. I imagine they're too chicken to confront that person at all.

It seems to me that many police departments take the phrase "to protect and serve" to mean that they are to protect and serve each other on the force. "Us" v Them. Our "public servants." What a bunch of cowards. This must have been "Mr. Super-cop" for them all to go to bat like that for him. I guess his firing is a back-breaking loss to the force, and crime fighting in Miami will never be the same now without speed-racer tooling up and down the highway, in or out of uniform.

reply to post by jrod


C.O.P.

Coward on Patrol

This woman is no cop, and the dogs sniffed her out.

She is no cop...

There is no such thing as a good cop.

She is merely human, and picked a profession she thought would allow her to do some good in the world. Bad idea, as a police department is no place for a good guy these days.

You will either bend to their way...

...or you will end up where this lady is...

She is a true hero among cowardly villains.

Gozer

It seems to me that many police departments take the phrase "to protect and serve" to mean that they are to protect and serve each other on the force. "Us" v Them.

That's exactly right.
www.policeone.com...

If you read the comments from LEOs on this website it's pretty pathetic and shows the mindset some of them have.

reply to post by DeepVisions


its called "professional courtesy" when you let an officer off without citation.

Why don't I get a professional courtesy? Am I just not equal enough?

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Well apparently you need to be part of their gang to be considered equal.

The initiation is easy though, you just have to beat the crap out of 10 citizens and shoot 5 dogs and you're in!

DeepVisions

www.policeone.com...

If you read the comments from LEOs on this website it's pretty pathetic and shows the mindset some of them have.

Wow. Thanks for that link. I am amazed that so many LEOs are against Ms. Watts. I think that website and those posts can be used as evidence in her case.

We are in a world of trouble because of the arrogance and attitude that so many LEOs have. They truly believe it is okay to for them to be above the law, and it is NOT okay for a fellow cop to enforce laws against other cops.

Here is a quote from someone who claims to be a cop on policeone.com:

Rickw898-
Not in my day would this ever had happened. He would have been pulled over and then when everything checked out that would have been the end of it. I don't know what is wrong with this young officers anymore they don't seem to realize that we our all brothers and unless he or she is an asshole no action should be taken. She does not want to be a part of the brotherhood and should retire or quit.

There are far more colorful comments than this one.

I do want to clarify one thing on policeone.com, a lot of the comments suggest that Ms. Watts disobeyed orders by pursuing Mr. Lopez. This is not true, Miami PD told her not to pursue. Ms. Watts does not answer to Miami PD and had no obligation to follow 'orders' from the Miami PD, she is a Florida State Trooper and answers to the state of Florida, not any city's police force.

If I had the power, I would appoint Ms. Watts to be in charge of the FDLE(Florida Department of Law Enforcement).

reply to post by jrod


petty .. but worse.

VINDICTIVE. vigilante justice by COPS!

They are the BIGGEST ENEMY to American life and society.

1,000,000 times more an enemy than someone in Afghanistan and Iraq COMBINED.

BADGES ARE REDCOATS!

part of their gang

That a pretty good summation of the situation. Doubt it will change anytime soon.

That's wild, I got pulled over at 110mph on my Ducati in Northern California, am not a cop and did not get a ticket. Of course it helped that I was not putting others lives at risk on an empty road and I had a great attitude when pulled over... Oh and three days later I got pulled over for 60 in a 30 pulling into the airport. No ticket there either....Not all cops are assholes. Some are actually really nice people that try to do the right thing.

Some are assholes though, I got a ten over ticket in the middle of nowhere on a touring bike up in SE Washington with my girl on the back and both of us in full gear.

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING WHEN DEALING WITH LEO'S (In all fairness, It never hurts being a white guy with nice toys either)

The only reason I posted this is balance. It is not cool to call all cops assholes, they are not.

reply to post by Mamatus


They ALL enforce a CORRUPT system.

If there was None lacking the HONOR and INTEGRITY to engage, enforce and ENABLE TYRANNY..

Then TYRANNY WOULD DIE!

Badges Are Redcoats in every manner.

Why not read up on what the redcoats did. Cops do that and THEN SOME.

1. revenue generation
2. FOR PROFIT prisons
3. Assault Constitutional rights for a PAYCHECK!!... detestable

reply to post by Mamatus


The first time I ever got pulled over was by a Florida State Trooper. I was going 78 in a 55. He was laughing and told me he could arrest me for reckless driving and gave me a warning. It was on a 4 lane highway with a divided medium with almost no traffic, 70 is a safe speed to go on that road. I was late for work with a co-worker in my car and we both had our lifeguard uniforms on, I think that helped my cause.

Not all police agencies and LEOs are bad and many are actually very reasonable. My experience with Florida State Troopers and Florida Fish and Wildlife officers have all been positive. It is the local police who seem to get out of line around here.

reply to post by jrod


TYT did a story on this a few days ago. It was 88 officers that looked up her information 200 times. She is sueing for $500,000 (which equals $2,500 per un warrented search of her name and address.

If she doesnt win her case i will be shocked.

reply to post by jrod


Honestly you should have got a speeding ticket. Just because there is little traffic does not mean its safe to speed. If I did 78 in a 55 zone I would get a huge ticket where I live.

reply to post by jrod


You should make her chief of miami police.

Obviosly she a better cop than most.

HanzHenry
reply to post by jrod

 

petty .. but worse.

VINDICTIVE. vigilante justice by COPS!

They are the BIGGEST ENEMY to American life and society.

1,000,000 times more an enemy than someone in Afghanistan and Iraq COMBINED.

BADGES ARE REDCOATS!

As a lover of history especialy the 1700-1975 time frame i can say Redcoats had a dam sight more honour and integrity it seems to american cops.

Infact compreing them to redcoats is a insult to redcoats,

These are the people who are tasked with serving and protecting us. Are these the types of people who you actually want protecting you? I don't think so. To me this is just another example of police officers who feel that they are above the law. It is a condition that is running rampant all across America, and unfortunately a case like this is not even the worst. Apparently it is too easy to become a police officer, and apparently they do not do psychological evaluations on these people that are accurate enough to point out who has the potential to abuse their power.

And then there is the possibility that a new officer can be corrupted over time, which makes it impossible to weed them out at the beginning of the process. But what needs to be done, and this is the only way I can see something being done about it, is that the Federal Government needs to get involved more heavily. There needs to be oversight that is constant for every police department across the country. This would require enormous resources, but as I said, it is the only way that I can think of to remedy this situation.

Because when you have people in the same department, people who know everyone else, you cannot expect them to do their jobs and provide objective oversight. Instead, what we see is that these people attempt to cover up the mistakes and blatant illegal actions of their colleagues. I have virtually lost all respect for police officers, which is a shame, considering there are probably still some decent cops out there.

Some people cannot be given any form of power, whether they are a police officer or a politician. They will abuse it, plain and simple. And I have no doubt that what this female officer is claiming could very well be true. It just sounds like something that such bad cops would do. And Florida has a long history of abuse when it comes to their officers, whether it is being involved in drug running, or just breaking minor laws such as the speed limit. Something needs to be done, otherwise innocent people will continue to suffer, and things will only get worse, considering that officers who abuse their power will continue to escalate their behavior as long as they get away with it.