A federal jury in Iowa has sided with a young man who was pulled over, subjected to field sobriety tests, and detained by police for driving under the influence despite blowing a 0.00 on a breathalyzer. The case of Tayvin Galanakis against two Newton, Iowa police officers and the city has concluded with a $105,000 verdict in his favor, capping a legal fight that began in 2022 and wound through multiple courts before landing in front of a jury this week. The outcome was not exactly a surprise to anyone who had watched the body camera footage.
What makes this case particularly notable is the sequence of events on that August night. Galanakis was pulled over by Officers Nathan Winters and Christopher Wing, who almost immediately began pressing him about alcohol consumption. When Galanakis said he hadn’t been drinking, the officer’s response was essentially “what do you mean, none?”
Rather than reaching for the breathalyzer Galanakis was actively asking for, Winters put him through a series of field sobriety tests first. When the breathalyzer finally came out and registered zero, the officer pivoted to marijuana as the new theory. “I blew zeros,” Galanakis told Winters on camera. “Now you’re trying to think I smoke weed. You can’t do that, man.”…