WSMV4 Investigates uncovers more than 600 cases of sober drivers arrested for DUI in Tennessee
WSMV4 Investigates uncovered 609 drivers were arrested for DUI in Tennessee who were completely sober at the time of their arrest between 2017 and 2023.
LEBANON, Tenn. (WSMV) - It’s the first thing you notice in watching the body camera footage of when Wilson County deputies approach Xavier Gray’s car.
As the first deputy arrives, Gray’s hands are in the air.
“First of all, I’m scared of the police,” Gray told WSMV4 Investigates.
Admitting he was intimidated and afraid of losing his license, the body camera footage shows him readily agreeing to a field sobriety test.
According to the arrest affidavit, Gray had crossed the center line. A deputy wrote that Gray’s eyes were red and was slow to respond to questions. The affidavit reads that he showed signs of impairment in all the field sobriety tests.
Gray’s reaction to being handcuffed is seen on the body camera footage.
“Placing you under arrest for driving under the influence. OK?” a deputy says in the video.
“Huh? I don’t even drink or anything. This is crazy,” Gray responded.
Months later, his bloodwork, processed by the TBI, shows he had neither alcohol nor drugs in his system.
“I knew nothing was in my system,” Gray said, adding that his arrest was early in the morning while he was on his way to work to write checks for his employees at his trucking company.
“I work for a living driving a dump truck. This is my whole livelihood,” Gray said. “I was really afraid about losing my license.”
Gray is the latest sober driver, found by WSMV4 Investigates, to be arrested for DUI in Tennessee.
WSMV4 Investigates’ reporting found a backlog of alcohol and toxicology tests at the TBI means innocent drivers are losing their jobs and insurance while they wait to clear their names.
The data does not include those arrested in 2024 who were sober. Xavier was arrested on May 17, 2024.
“It’s a miscarriage of justice,” Gray said. “It seems like they’re doing it all over Tennessee.”
The data does not show where the arrests occurred, or which police agencies made them.
The TBI data shows the arrest of sober drivers happened one or less than one percent of the time in that time frame. The vast majority of DUI arrests resulted in either alcohol or drugs found in the driver’s system.
But because there are so many DUI arrests, an average of 15,000 a year, that one percent has resulted in hundreds of arrests of sober drivers.
WSMV4 Investigates spoke with Alex Otte, executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Tennessee.
“Nobody wants drunk drivers on the road, ever. But what does it say that we keep finding sober people being arrested for DUI? I have heard of those on a very limited scale and those are, of course, tragic for anyone involved,” Otte said.
WSMV4 Investigates is now seeking reactions to the data from law enforcement agencies and prosecutors. We are also asking the TBI to release the locations of the arrests as well as the police agencies responsible.
Gray said it is not comforting to know how often it’s happened to people just like him.
“You know what’s scary? Is thinking about how hard I’ve worked to stay out of trouble, right? And then to have something like this happen,” Gray said.
How WSMV4 Investigates continued to argue the data should be public
Having documented so many cases, WSMV4 Investigates filled out open records requests for a month, asking the TBI for bloodwork data over the past seven years of all the people who were determined to have no alcohol or drugs in their system.
The TBI repeatedly denied our request, stating that their investigative records are confidential. WSMV4 Investigates then asked for statistical data.
The TBI responded by supplying a report generated, according to the agency, “several months ago.”
That report listed statistical data for all of the people who were arrested for DUI and the percentage of alcohol in their system at the time of their arrest.
“This document only details results related to alcohol testing. We do not maintain corresponding statistics for drug testing in DUI cases,” the email from the TBI read.
The document shows between 2017 and 2023 (the 2024 data is not yet compiled), 31, 567 people were arrested for DUI in Tennessee and had no alcohol, 0.00 percent, in their bodies. However, it did not include the data on how many of the 31,567 people were found to have been impaired by drugs, either illegal or prescribed.
The statistical data was compiled after Rep. Lowell Russell, R-Vonore, had a constituent who was sober and arrested for DUI.
“I saw the news stories that you all did,” Russell said.
WSMV4 Investigates then asked the TBI if they would determine how many of the 31,567 people had no drugs in the system as well.
A TBI spokesman said they were working to try to compile that data. On Friday, Nov. 1, WSMV4 Investigates received an email detailing the 609 cases.
As stated above, we are now asking the TBI to identify which policy agencies made the arrests and they occurred and will report back if and when we obtained that data.
Russell said he would now like the TBI to create a public document that would show for all arrests, including DUI if that person was convicted or the charges were dismissed.
If you were a sober driver charged with DUI, or there’s something you think we need to know about, please email Jeremy.finley@wsmv.com.
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