Citation dismissed after deputy accuses driver without hand of holding phone
Months after a woman in Florida was pulled over and cited for allegedly driving while holding a phone in her missing right hand, the traffic citation has been dismissed.
The traffic stop went viral after Katie Thomas, the woman who was cited in the incident, posted video of the stop on social media.
Body camera footage from the February traffic stop, obtained by ABC News, shows a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Deputy pulling over Thomas.
"You drove past me holding the phone with your right hand, manipulating that phone," the deputy says in the video.
That's when Thomas holds up her right arm, revealing she doesn't have her right hand.
She laughs and says, "Obviously not."
She then adds, "So you want to just call this a day?"
The deputy says he thought he saw her holding the phone in her right hand.
Despite her denials, she was given a $116 traffic citation for texting while driving.
Palm Beach County court records indicate the citation was dismissed Tuesday at the request of the sheriff's office for "insufficient evidence."
In a statement, the sheriff's office said the deputy initiated the traffic stop "based upon his visual observation at the time of the incident," and that the decision was made to drop the case after "additional review of the Florida State Statutes involved and based upon the totality of the circumstances."
The statement went on to say: "Law enforcement officers are required to make decisions based on observations made in real time. As with any enforcement action, motorists have the right to contest citations through the judicial process, where all facts and evidence can be fully evaluated."
