It was about 11:00 PM when the kid from out of town pulled out of the convenience store parking lot to go back to the Holiday Inn across the street. No sooner had he cleared the curb line than a car going about 50 MPH T-boned him. He had pulled out directly into the path of the oncoming car.
It was a quiet night for Kerrville Police Department and I was the only cop on duty, not unusual in those days. Thankfully, nobody was seriously hurt, but there were two disabled vehicles blocking Highway 16, the major artery going north out of town. I called for a couple of wreckers to get the highway reopened as soon as possible.
The kid who had pulled out into traffic was staggering and he reeked of beer. The car that had hit him had been full of local kids and some of their friends had been watching from the convenience store parking lot. The whole situation was deteriorating into a mob of local kids screaming for justice against the drunk out-of-towner who had pulled out into traffic.
But things just didn’t seem right. The kid who reeked of beer was staggering, true, but his speech was normal and there were no other signs of intoxication, such as horizontal gaze nystagmus. He claimed to have just checked into the hotel, then decided to get a 6-pack of beer to drink in his room. He swore he had not opened a beer yet, but said they had all exploded at the instant of collision. His staggering was diminishing as the minutes passed and my experience led me to believe he was telling the truth.
He said he had looked both ways before pulling out and there were no headlights in either direction. One of the other kids was hanging back from the mob that was becoming more and more vocal, so I went to talk to him. He confirmed that he had seen no headlights on the highway before the crash, either.
I collected some of the broken headlight pieces from the striking vehicle to send to the Texas DPS Crime Lab for analysis to determine if the lights had been on or off at the instant of collision, a simple test. The driver swore to me he had his headlights on, but if they were off, the wreck was his fault.
The mob was worked into a frenzy now demanding I arrest the kid from out of town. I took him aside and explained that this could get nasty and suggested that in order to quiet the mob and clear him of wrongdoing, I would like to make a big show of arresting him for DUI. I would handcuff him, place him in the squad car, and take off as if going to jail. Instead, we would go to the DPS field office in Kerrville where he could take a breathalyzer test. I was sure it would register zero and I would return him safely to the hotel. I would not do an arrest report unless his blood alcohol level showed him to be intoxicated. He eagerly agreed.
We made a big show of the “arrest” and, sure enough, the breath test showed zero alcohol in his blood. I took him back to his hotel and my official report attributed the accident to the other car driving without its headlights on, which subsequent testing confirmed. That was the only time in my career I made an intentional false arrest to clear an innocent person.