A prosecutor said a Tallahassee police officer’s decision to open and empty a sealed bottle of liquor she found in the car of a man found guilty on April 8 of driving under the influence was a “mistake.”
The case of 56-year-old Calvin Riley Sr. has gained widespread attention after bodycam footage of his arrest last May went viral online last week and raised questions about police misconduct.
Atlanta Black Star’s previous coverage cited an OurTallahassee report that posted edited footage showing Officer Kiersten Oliver reaching into Riley’s car, pulling out an unopened bottle of vodka, breaking the bottle’s seal, and pouring its contents on the street before throwing it back in his car.
“This case involves an officer planting evidence,” said Assistant Public Defender Desiree Goodfellow during her opening statement in Riley’s trial. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it. What you are going to see from the officer is shocking. It is egregious. It is outrageous. It is not an innocent mistake.”
According to a police report, Oliver saw Riley’s white Mercedes-Benz speeding and swerving with his headlights off just after 2 a.m. on May 7, 2023. She testified that she noticed his eyes were “watery” and “kind of bloodshot” after she pulled him over and that he was “fumbling” items in his visor to find his driver’s license, which he couldn’t produce.
She also said Riley’s car smelled like marijuana and alcohol and that she saw an open Tervis tumbler in the center console. She wasn’t sure if that tumbler smelled of alcohol or not, so she called in Officer Margaret Mueth, who had more DUI case experience, for backup. Mueth said in court the tumbler did “contain an alcoholic beverage.”
After Riley refused a voluntary sobriety test, he was arrested on a charge of driving with a suspended license and placed in the back of a police vehicle as what became the DUI charge began taking shape between the responding…
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