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A Colorado man reached a $400,000 settlement with the city of Loveland over a false arrest for drunk driving. Harris Elias was pulled over on the night of January 4, 2020, for speeding and not using a signal to change lanes. Loveland Police Officer William Gates, who no longer works for the department, said Elias was driving 63 mph in a 45 mph zone.
According to the lawsuit filed by Elias, Gates falsely claimed there was an "overwhelming odor of alcohol coming from [Elias'] vehicle."
Gates knew the officer was lying and refused to answer any of his questions. He was then taken into custody and brought to the police station, where he took a breathalyzer test. Despite blowing triple zeros, indicating he had no alcohol in his system, Elias was ordered to take a blood test and charged with driving under the influence.
When the blood test results came back negative for drugs and alcohol, the Larimer County District Attorney's Office dismissed the charges.
During the course of the lawsuit, Elias' lawyers uncovered at least a dozen others who were wrongly arrested for DUI by Loveland police officers. Gates was responsible for most of the false arrests and was even given a trophy two weeks after Elias' arrest for making the most DUI arrests in the department.
"No amount of money will ever return me to the peaceful state of naivete to our broken system that I enjoyed before I was stopped by former Officer Gates that night and put through the nightmare of this wrongful arrest. Nothing will shake from my heart the horror and shock I felt after blowing zeroes and not being set free. All I can hope is that with this lawsuit, with Gates gone from the department, and with this settlement, I have saved at least one other person from having to experience what I did," Elias said.