Cop goes crazy, just arrests everyone for dui

.: Corvallis Gazette-Times: Community News

Cox has been on administrative leave since Sept.14 while the department investigates potential policy violations, according to Lt. Dave Henslee. The department has remained silent about the specific reasons for the investigation, but Henslee confirmed that one factor was Cox’s arrest of a man whose blood alcohol level proved to be 0.00 percent and who also tested negative for drugs.

An attorney representing the man arrested by Cox filed a tort claim notice — formally putting the city on notice of the possibility that it might be sued over the matter — two weeks before Cox was placed on leave.

“My client should never have had to go through this,” Dan Rayfield, the man’s attorney, said. “We filed a tort claim notice saying, ‘Hey, there’s going to be an issue here.’ ”

That notice was sent to the city of Corvallis on Aug. 30.

Cox has been widely recognized for the number of DUII arrests he has made. Of the 35 DUII arrests made by Corvallis police in the month of May this year, 27 were made by Cox.

However, six of the 27 people arrested by Cox that month had blood alcohol levels under the legal limit and were not found to have been using drugs. And about one-quarter of the people he arrested were either not prosecuted by the District Attorney’s Office, or had charges dismissed by the court.

But all of those people still have the DUII arrests on their records. State law says arrests for motor vehicle violations cannot be removed from a driver’s record — even if the individual was never actually charged or convicted.

“An arrest for traffic is not expungeable,” said Corvallis defense attorney Jennifer Nash. So when innocent people are arrested, she said, “There is actual damage.”

I've got a great idea. Just arrest everyone and put them in jail. Then you can let them out only if they're good! It would make things so much easier for the cops, and that's the real point, right? Making it easy for the knuckle dragging thugs, that's what America's all about, right? Right?