A Florida man received a settlement worth $37,500 after the police mistook the sugar glaze on his Krispy Kreme doughnuts for crystal meth. 64-year-old Daniel Rushing was slapped with drug possession charges and subsequently arrested in December 2015. Following the arrest, Rushing sued the city of Orlando for this unnecessary harassment and false charges that were brought against him.

The police officers arrested Rushing after discovering small flakes of sugar glaze on his car’s floorboard. The law enforcement officials mistook the glaze flakes as pieces of crystal methamphetamine.

Despite stating that the bits were sugar glazes from a Krispy Kreme doughnut he had consumed earlier, cops arrested Rushing on the charges of methamphetamine possession. To come to a quick conclusion, the police officers carried out two roadside drug tests of the sugar flakes. Unfortunately, the results came out positive for an illegal substance and Rushing was arrested.

Rushing receives $37,500 after charges proven incorrect

In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Rushing stated that he was surprised to see the test results as he had never smoked meth at any point in his life. His claims of being clean were later proved by a state crime lab, which conducted an in-depth test of the sugar flakes.

On receiving a clean chit from the crime lab, the drug allegations against the victim were dropped.

However, by the time the charges were removed, Rushing had spent 10 hours in jail and the police posted a bond of $2,500. Moreover, even after the charges were dropped, the note of him being arrested for possession of meth still appeared in his personal record, which prevented him from getting employment after the incident.

All this mess started when police officers pulled over Rushing for failing to come to a complete stop. The 64-year-old told the Orlando Sentinel that even after he was clear of the charges, it was difficult for him to move on, as the arrest was still visible on his records. He told the publication that no one was interested in hiring him as soon as they saw from his online records that he had been arrested.

Arresting officer gets reprimanded

As an action for accusing an innocent man on false charges, Shelby Riggs-Hopkins, the officer who conducted the field drug test, was given a written warning. The drug test that was conducted on the site was carried out by Shelby, who apparently wasn’t properly trained to conduct the test. As a result, the test results on the sugar bits came back positive for cocaine.