GUSTAFSON LAW FIRM

Charles Tharp, 69, were headed back home from vacation. They weren’t speeding, the officer who pulled them over said their window tint (factory tint from Toyota) was too dark. That was just the beginning.

“The deputy asked me for my driver’s licenses and then asks me to pull-down my rear window. The deputy then told me that my windows were tinted too dark for Georgia State law and I somehow did not comply with Georgia State Law.”

More than twenty minutes after the Walton County(GA) Sheriff’s deputy ordered them out of their car they were still being grilled about whether or not they were smuggling. “Heroin? Methamphetamine? Ecstasy?” The police dog smelled around their car, all the while the senior citizens were standing by the side of the road in the cold.

“Your deputy then told me to get out of my car and stand behind my car so he could separate me and my wife. He begins to interrogate me and asks me all kinds of personal questions like where I was from and where do I live and why did I move to North Carolina, where was I was going and how many children I have and how many days have I been traveling. He wanted to know what my wife was doing with her insulin pump. He wanted to know what was in my luggage. He pats me down and then goes over to my wife and asks her the same questions to see if our stories match,” Charles wrote in his complaint to Walton County.

Do not answer questions or allow police to “go on a fishing expedition” if you are pulled over. Hand them your driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance. Then zip your lip.

“Anything you say will be used against you”

They weren’t even speeding.