An Arkansas woman who was originally arrested for driving on a suspended license later found herself facing a serious felony drug charge after a state trooper claimed cocaine had been discovered in the back of his patrol car where she had been sitting.
But attorney and YouTube host John Bryan, who runs The Civil Rights Lawyer channel, says video from the trooper’s own cruiser tells a very different story.
Bryan argues that former Arkansas State Trooper Christian Morphis planted the cocaine in an attempt to frame Amanda Prince, then relied on statements in his reports and later testimony to connect the drugs to her.
Prince was ultimately acquitted of the drug charges.
The Arkansas State Police later fired Morphis for policy violations, although the agency has denied Prince’s allegation that he planted drugs.
A Suspended-License Arrest Turns Into Something Much Bigger
The incident began on December 17, 2023, when Prince was driving on U.S. Highway 425 in Monticello, Arkansas.
Bryan said Morphis recognized her truck and believed Prince was driving despite having a suspended license.
The dash camera captured Morphis ordering Prince out of the truck before eventually handcuffing her.
The encounter was tense almost immediately.
Morphis repeatedly criticized Prince for driving without a valid license, telling her that previous warnings had apparently not worked.
During a later internal affairs interview shown by Bryan, Morphis described his own behavior during that period as having a “pathetic attitude” and acknowledged that he was angry because he did not want to be at work that day.
Bryan characterized the trooper’s behavior as unprofessional and needlessly hostile.
Prince was placed in the rear seat of the cruiser without being fully searched first, according to Bryan.
That detail would later become extremely important.
Morphis Repeatedly Asked About Drugs
Before Prince was taken to jail, Morphis repeatedly asked whether she had anything illegal on her or inside her truck.
Prince denied having drugs.
Another trooper joined Morphis in searching the vehicle, but Bryan said they found nothing illegal inside it.
At one point, Morphis told the other officer that he had left the in-car camera recording Prince in the back seat while turning off the display so she would not know she was being watched.
According to Bryan, Morphis said he was hoping the camera might catch her trying to hide something.
“We’ll go back and search my seat after we get her out,” Morphis said in footage played by Bryan.
That statement became one of the details Bryan found most suspicious.
He argued that if Morphis genuinely believed Prince had drugs hidden on her, the obvious step would have been to search her before putting her in the cruiser.
Prince was handcuffed behind her back and wearing relatively tight clothing, Bryan noted, which made the idea that she secretly moved a bag of cocaine into the back seat even harder for him to accept.
The Camera Was Turned Off at a Critical Moment
The most important part of the encounter came when Morphis arrived at the local jail.
Bryan said Prince had been recorded continuously in the rear seat during the drive.
But as the patrol car pulled into the jail sallyport, Morphis turned the cameras off.
During his later internal affairs interview, Morphis admitted doing that and said it was his normal practice because he knew the jail had other cameras in the area.
He said he turned the camera back on after allegedly noticing a bag of crack cocaine near Prince’s feet.
That created a crucial gap.
The exact moment when the drugs were supposedly found was not captured by Morphis’ own cruiser camera.
Prince immediately denied the drugs belonged to her.
“Bull crap, because that was not on me,” she said after the audio resumed.
Morphis responded that he had a camera that had supposedly watched everything.
Bryan found that statement particularly striking because Morphis had just turned the camera off during the most important part of the encounter.
Earlier Footage Raises a Serious Question
Bryan then pointed to footage recorded earlier in the stop.
A little more than 16 minutes into the recording, he said, the video appears to show Morphis opening the front passenger door of his cruiser and tossing a small clear plastic object into the front passenger area.
Prince was sitting handcuffed in the back and would not have been able to see what happened.
Bryan argued that the object appears consistent with the clear bag later presented as cocaine.
When Prince was removed from the cruiser at the jail, Bryan said Morphis then claimed to find the drugs in the rear area where she had been sitting.
The attorney described the earlier video as the key evidence supporting Prince’s allegation that the drugs were planted.
Bryan also pointed to Prince’s reaction when Morphis placed the bag on the hood of his car.
She shook her head and repeatedly denied ownership.
In Bryan’s view, the footage showed someone reacting with genuine shock rather than someone who had been caught trying to hide narcotics.
Prince Faced a Felony and Lost Much More
Morphis charged Prince with possession with intent to deliver, which Bryan said was a Class C felony carrying the possibility of up to 10 years in prison.
She also faced additional allegations involving tampering with physical evidence and obstructing governmental operations.
Bryan said Morphis later wrote in his report that he knew the drugs had not already been in the patrol car because he had recently vacuumed the rear seat area.
He also claimed Prince had been moving erratically and appeared to be digging around her waistline before the drugs were found.
Those assertions later appeared in the probable-cause paperwork used against Prince.
Bryan contends those statements were false.
Prince had to post a $5,000 bond to get out of jail.
Her truck was also impounded, and she later said the accumulating fees became too expensive for her to recover it.
Losing the truck then affected her ability to get to work, and she ultimately lost her job as well.
That is what makes the case especially troubling even beyond the criminal charge itself. A false or unsupported accusation can continue affecting someone long after the arrest is over, particularly when transportation, employment, bail and legal expenses begin piling up at the same time.
Jury Acquits Prince
Prince’s drug case went to trial in September 2024.
Morphis testified and repeated his account that the cocaine had not been in his cruiser before Prince entered it.
Despite that testimony, Prince was found not guilty on the drug charges.
The allegation that Morphis himself had planted the drugs was not fully litigated during that trial, according to Bryan.
Prince later filed a citizen complaint accusing Morphis of planting cocaine, fabricating evidence and committing perjury.
That complaint triggered an internal affairs investigation by the Arkansas State Police.
Bryan showed portions of a lengthy interview in which an investigator directly challenged Morphis over inconsistencies in his reports and conduct.
At one point, the investigator accused him of “playing with her life” and questioned whether statements in his official report were truthful.
Morphis himself acknowledged that the footage looked bad.
“It looks horrible, and I know it does,” he said.
State Police Fired Morphis but Denied Drug-Planting Claim
Morphis was eventually fired in January 2025 for policy violations, including inaccurate statements and failing to search Prince before placing her in his patrol car.
He was later decertified, meaning he could no longer work as a law enforcement officer in Arkansas.
However, the Arkansas State Police did not agree with Prince’s allegation that Morphis planted the cocaine.
In a later statement, the agency said its Office of Professional Standards had thoroughly investigated the case and stood by the decision to terminate him.
At the same time, the agency called Prince’s drug-planting accusation “erroneous and irresponsible” and said there was “zero evidence” supporting the claim.
That creates an important divide in the case.
Bryan believes the video itself shows the strongest evidence: the object being tossed into the front of the cruiser, the camera being turned off at the jail, the drugs then appearing in the rear seat, and Prince immediately denying they belonged to her.
The Arkansas State Police, meanwhile, has maintained that Morphis committed serious policy violations but did not plant drugs.
Prince Says the Experience Changed Her View of Police
Prince later described the incident as deeply damaging.
“I never in a million years would have thought a state trooper would do that,” she said in an interview played by Bryan.
She also said the experience permanently affected how she feels around law enforcement.
Bryan has argued that credibility becomes a serious problem for any officer found to have made false statements in the course of official duties, because future criminal cases may depend on that officer’s testimony.
Prince has since pursued a federal civil lawsuit seeking damages over what she says happened during the arrest and prosecution.
For Bryan, the larger issue is not simply whether one traffic stop went wrong.
It is what happens when an officer’s word carries enormous power, while the person being accused has little ability in that moment to prove otherwise.
In this case, Prince happened to have something working in her favor that neither she nor, apparently, Morphis fully appreciated at the time: a camera that had been recording much more than anyone realized.
Mark grew up in the heart of Texas, where tornadoes and extreme weather were a part of life. His early experiences sparked a fascination with emergency preparedness and homesteading. A father of three, Mark is dedicated to teaching families how to be self-sufficient, with a focus on food storage, DIY projects, and energy independence. His writing empowers everyday people to take small steps toward greater self-reliance without feeling overwhelmed.
