The N.C. Highway Patrol has cleared one trooper and suspended another in the bizarre case involving a woman who was stopped for suspicious reasons, who later blew a 0.00 on a Breathalyzer, but who still was arrested, handcuffed, and taken to a remote county jail late at night.
If the powers that be at the N.C. Highway Patrol can read Michael Biesecker’s riveting account of what happened that night, which has been contradicted only in a couple of minor instances, without feeling that both of these troopers were acting in an unprofessional, arrogant, and dangerous manner, then something is wrong.
As a reporter, my first thought would be to try to determine whether the troopers involved have had a habit of stopping attractive women late at night on a trumped-up excuses and claiming they smell non-existent alcohol on their breaths. Was that done? Did they even ask? Because this instance has the earmarks of a time-worn M.O. about it.
Was it just a coincidence that a second trooper stopped a concerned husband trying to follow his arrested wife? Was it just a coincidence that the first trooper then picked a remote and unlikely jail to take the wife to? Was the high-handed and unprofessional texting by both troopers simply a one-off occurrence? If the N.C. Highway Patrol thinks that, then they would have been perfect candidates for the Casey Anthony jury.
This whole thing smells of an abuse of power, and both of these troopers a covered with the odor.
