A class-action lawsuit has been filed against a former Utah Highway Patrol trooper and her superiors alleging that she filed false DUI charges during her career.
The department fired Lisa Steed in November for alleged misconduct related to her duties.
Attorney Michael Studebaker, who is one of the lawyers leading the class-action lawsuit, says he has been contacted by at least 40 people claiming Steed wrongfully arrested them on DUI or drug charges.
“Culture of corruption. The stories are just rampant,” said Studebaker, who filed the lawsuit Dec. 14 in District Court in Salt Lake County.
Lawyers have yet to determine exactly how much the plaintiffs will seek in monetary damages.
One of the alleged victims was Michael Choate, who says Steed pulled him over for speeding with his wife in the car.
“She said she clocked me at 73. I was going about 50, 52 at most,” Choate said.
Choate was arrested and charged with DUI, but the charge was reduced to having an open container of alcohol in the car after a blood test showed he was not drunk. Choate says he was forced to pay $3,000 in fines to get his car back.
Choate was also upset that his wife was forced to find her own way home after his arrest.
“They dropped her off at a Burger King,” he said. “She didn’t have any money, she didn’t have her cellphone with her. She had to borrow a quarter from a lady to make a phone call.”
Steed and her attorney have not responded to requests for comment. Utah Highway Patrol says it cannot comment on pending litigation.
She is under investigation by the FBI.
Studebaker also cites a dashcam video from a 2011 traffic stop that he says shows Steed’s pulling over a woman driver. The video shows the driver performing a series of sobriety tests. Studebaker says the unidentified woman passed all the tests with flying colors but was still arrested for DUI.
Charges were later dropped after a blood test found no alcohol in her system, Studebaker says. The driver has since joined the lawsuit against Steed.
Steed was named Utah Highway Patrol’s “Trooper of the Year” in 2007 for making more than 200 DUI arrests, a reward that Studebaker says should be taken away from her.
Steed herself has admitted in the past that she did not follow proper protocol while administering a DUI check. At a court hearing in May 2012, Steed admitted that, while she was administering a blood-alcohol test on Theron Alexander March 2010, she removed her microphone in order to perform an unauthorized action.
An attorney representing Alexander told ABC News last year that Steed’s actions could call all her cases into question.
“The cumulative facts may well have a significant ripple effect across every case she’s touched,” Salt Lake City attorney Joseph Jardine said in March. “This could become the basis for overturning multiple convictions in the past.”
Steed’s attorney, Greg Skordas, has said he does not believe that the incident is any reflection of his client’s credibility.
“It doesn’t affect her credibility. It affects the way she does things, her ability to follow instructions,” Skordas told ABCNews.com in March. “It doesn’t mean she’s dishonest.”
In 2009, dashcam video showed Steed stun-gunning Ryan Jones, a motorist who was later determined to be sober.
The case was settled in November 2011 when the state paid Jones $40,000 without admitting wrongdoing.
When asked about that case, Skordas said, “She took her lumps, she was reprimanded and we move on.”
http://abcnews.go.com/US/fired-utah-state-trooper-lisa-steed-accused-falsifying/
This kind of thing happens all of the time. They are just trying to make it look like the authorities are cracking down on dirty cops. They are just trying to make an example of this pig.
the main thing to learn here is I am sick and tired of those who say oh it is only one bad one the rest are heroes. bullshit evryone in the barracks knew what that fat ass dyke was doing and they did nothing oops they did give her awards. the trouble is if she goes to jail which she wont she will be in lesbian paradise
A cop who lied ??????? say it isn’t so … Bwahahahahaha!
Since promotions are based largely on the number of arrests a LEO makes, illegal baseless stops, including mass traffic stops for alcohol checks, and arrests will continue to take place all over the nation until there is a huge outcry and the public demands they cease and desist.
The law enforcement system needs to be totally revamped and returned to a system that serves and treats the public honestly and with respect rather than a bunch of criminal tricksters and abusers in uniform serving as a revenue resources.
Wish we had lawyers with huevos like that in Texas, The cops set up and railroad innocent people like myself all the time but no lawyers will stand up to them they are scared to for some reason like they know that they will be targeted by the crooks also if they do.
I lived in SLC for 7 years. Had problems with the city cops, but never the state.
This is a little glimpse into how abusive government can become.
Try imagining your government having the right to kick in your door at 3 am whenever they wished to.
If you think the government treats us with disdain now, try imagining how much worse they would treat us if they thought we were unarmed…
Um…no need to imagine… they already do break down doors at 3am. Sometimes they even get the wrong door, since these idiots, most of whom have under-average IQ’s, get the address wrong. But that is never a justification to charge the cops with wrong-doing, since cops are never found to be wrong. That is why they are seldom charged with crimes, despite overwhelming evidence showing their guilt. I love how the cop lawyer says, “It doesn’t mean she’s dishonest.” Yes it does. But then again, these people live in a completely different reality where no action by them is punishable. They get away with everything. Imagine that kind of life and the person you would become if you knew with certainty that nothing you did would ever be punished. That even if you killed someone, all of your buddies would back you up and the district attorney would fail to press charges and any investigation would take a full year and come back claiming you acted 100% correctly and no charges should be brought against you.
Now change that to…you will only be charged if the crime is caught on video camera… How much would you hate citizens shooting video of you for YouTube if those videos stood in the way of you getting away your crimes?