Such a sick burn that he had to have been sober.
Back in 2021, police arrested 19-year old Tayvin Galanakis for DUI in Newton, Iowa. The only problem was: He was stone-cold sober.
Officers initially pulled Galanakis over for driving with his bright lights on, which the 19-year old explained was because he had a headlight out. But for some reason the officer was suspicious that the teenager was under the influence because his eyes were “watery and bloodshot,” and claimed that he smelled an odor of alcohol.
They decided to test him for DUI, and Galanakis blew a zero on the breathalyzer, so police then decided that if he wasn’t drunk he had to have been high, and arrested him anyway, despite Galanakis telling them that he was a football player for William Penn University and was drug tested regularly. The officers claimed that he failed the field sobriety tests, which was probably because it was pouring the rain…
Throughout the interaction, Galanakis was taunting the officers, assuring them that he had nothing to drink and would blow zeros on the breathalyzer. And when they asked him why his eyes were watery, he shot back:
“Probably because it’s raining, dumbass.”
When he told them that he got drug tested by the football team every Friday, the officer pointed out that it was Saturday – and Galanakis quickly responded:
“Weed stays on your shit for 30 days, so if I did a test next week I’d be off the football team, dumbass.”
Despite the lack of evidence that Galanakis was intoxicated, Officer Nathan Winters still arrested him of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, with the teen continuing to point out that he blew zeros on the breathalyzer and the officer then accusing him of being under the influence of narcotics.
At the station, the officer even admits that there was “not very much” on the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, which is the eye test that looks at the jerking movement present when a person has been drinking and is the only one of the field sobriety tests that is objective and not subject to the officer’s interpretation. But apparently because of the teen’s supposed “poor performance” on the other field sobriety tests, the officer decided to take him in anyway.
An officer later comes in to do a drug evaluation and decides that Galanakis is, in fact, sober, and decides to release him without charges. But before he leaves, Galanakis asks to speak to Winters again and mocks him for the improper arrest:
“Was this your first false accusation?”
The officer admits that he’s been wrong many times, and Galanakis immediately roasts him:
“I can tell, man. Terrible.”
After he got his hands on the bodycam footage, Galanakis posted the video on YouTube with his own commentary, and later filed a lawsuit against the city of Newton and the officers involved in his arrest.
The city responded, claiming that they had qualified immunity because the officers had probable cause to believe that Galanakis was under the influence of marijuana. But the court denied their motion, claiming in part that Galanakis was roasting the cops so good that there was no chance he was high at the time:
“As the district court found, and as the footage shows, ‘Galanakis was moving confidently and directing subtle and not-so-subtle verbal jabs at Winters in a manner that would have been difficult for an impaired person.’”
Tough look for those cops.
