A nationwide investigation reveals that sober drivers are being arrested for DUI despite having no alcohol or drugs in their system

WSMV 4 Nashville investigative reporter Jeremy Finley has been chasing what he calls a “sobering problem” for years, and his newest reporting suggests it is no longer a Tennessee-only scandal with a few weird outliers – it is a pattern showing up across the country, with sober people getting arrested for DUI and later cleared by the very blood tests that are supposed to settle the question.

Finley’s latest report lays it out in a way that is hard to shake: drivers are being handcuffed, jailed, and publicly labeled as impaired, even when toxicology later shows “no alcohol, no drugs” in their system, which means the decision to arrest is often coming down to the field sobriety tests and an officer’s interpretation of what they saw on the roadside.

That matters because, as Finley’s investigation argues, you can be exhausted, anxious, neurodivergent, sick, or simply overwhelmed – and still look “off” enough to fail a test that was never meant to be a medical exam, never meant to diagnose disabilities, and may not even be as reliable as most people assume.

One Alabama Traffic Stop Shows How This Can Spiral

Finley centers his report around an Alabama traffic stop involving Justin Beery, a man pulled over after a long work shift and very little sleep, who quickly told the officer something that sounds like honesty but also sounds like a warning: “You might think I’m drunk,” he said, explaining he was running on “like three hours of sleep.”

That detail matters because fatigue can mimic impairment in ways that are visible – slow responses, unsteady balance, delayed processing – yet it is not alcohol, it is not drugs, and it is not a crime by itself.

Finley reports that the stop took an even sharper turn when Beery made what he later called a key mistake while trying to answer a question about medication; he told the officer he had “ADD,” but later admitted the reality was that he was on the autism spectrum and he was scared to say it in the moment.

That fear is something a lot of people understand instantly, because once you are on the side of the road with lights flashing behind you, you can feel like every word you choose is a test, and many people blurt out the simplest label they can think of instead of the accurate one.

Finley says Beery performed poorly on the field sobriety test, and the body camera footage captured something that should have slowed the whole thing down: the officers noted “no odor of alcohol” and no evidence of marijuana use in plain view, yet still concluded the test results were enough to arrest him for DUI.

And then came the piece that flips the story from “maybe he was impaired” to “how did this happen”: Finley reports Beery’s bloodwork later came back showing no alcohol and no drugs in his system.

Beery’s father, Scott Beery, told Finley that the family was angry, not because they are anti-police, but because they consider themselves “pro-police” and still watched their son get arrested “for doing nothing,” which is exactly the kind of sentence that makes a viewer sit up and realize this can happen to people who are not looking for trouble.

Finley also notes that the Pelham Police Department declined an interview but confirmed an internal investigation is underway, which suggests even the agency understands the public concern is not going away with a shrug.

Tennessee Was The Start, But The Map Keeps Growing

The reason Finley’s report hits hard is that he connects Beery’s case to what WSMV4 Investigates has already documented in Tennessee: more than 2,500 Tennesseans arrested for DUI whose blood tests later showed no alcohol and no drugs.

That’s not a typo-sized number, and it is not the kind of figure you can wave away as a few unlucky misunderstandings, because it implies a system that is repeatedly making the same kind of call and repeatedly getting the same kind of lab result back.

Finley says his team pushed beyond Tennessee by using lawsuits, police records, and news reports, building a national picture that includes sober DUI claims across multiple states – he even points viewers to an interactive map on the WSMV4 app where you can click each state and read the case details they found.

In the report, Finley highlights Hawaii as one example, describing a man named Ammon Fepuleai reacting in disbelief when an officer claimed to smell alcohol, because he blew zero on a breath test and still ended up arrested.

Fepuleai told Finley he felt “embarrassed” and “profiled,” emphasizing he doesn’t drink, smoke, or do drugs, and Finley reports Honolulu prosecutors later declined to pursue the case, citing insufficient evidence.

Finley then shifts to Florida, where a woman named Alli Cupello described the moment handcuffs went on as “scary” specifically because she knew she wasn’t drunk, and her bloodwork later showed she was completely sober.

And in Iowa, Finley points to a lawsuit from a William Penn University football player, Tayvin Galanakis, who says he was arrested for DUI while sober even after blowing zero, a scenario that raises an obvious question: if the breath test is clean, what exactly is the test measuring at that point – impairment, or just “does this person look weird under pressure”?

Finley’s reporting doesn’t pretend all DUI arrests are wrong, and it doesn’t dismiss real impaired driving as a minor issue; what it does is draw a bright line between “we need to stop drunk drivers” and “we should not be arresting sober people because a roadside performance went badly.”

The Field Sobriety Test Question No One Wants To Answer

Finley brings in DUI expert witness Joshua Ott, who argues the heart of the problem is the field sobriety test itself, not necessarily because officers are malicious, but because the test can produce false confidence.

Ott points to a 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that looked at 184 people, with some given cannabis and others given a placebo, and then had officers administer field sobriety tests across the group.

Finley reports Ott’s takeaway: among the placebo group – the sober group – officers determined 49.2% “failed” the field sobriety tests, a false positive rate Ott described as “astonishing.”

Ott’s larger claim in Finley’s piece is blunt: he says there is no good research showing field sobriety tests accurately prove someone is impaired, which means using them as the hinge for an arrest can become a high-stakes gamble.

That idea is uncomfortable because sobriety tests have been culturally treated like a near-perfect truth machine; most people grow up believing that if you fail, you must be guilty, and if you pass, you must be fine, as if the human body is a reliable instrument in a chaotic roadside setting.

But Finley’s reporting keeps returning to the same point: these tests are performed under stress, often in poor lighting, near traffic, sometimes in cold or heat, and they can be affected by sleep deprivation, neurological differences, anxiety, injuries, age, and even simple coordination issues that have nothing to do with intoxication.

And when you combine a shaky test with an officer who thinks they need to “do something,” the risk becomes obvious: you can be sober and still get processed like a criminal.

The Human Cost Doesn’t Start In Court – It Starts In The Handcuffs

One of the strongest parts of Finley’s report is that it doesn’t treat these cases like abstract policy debates; it keeps the focus on what it feels like when the arrest happens.

Beery described the experience as torture-like, and Finley notes he now drives with a letter from his psychiatrist stating his diagnosis means he cannot perform a field sobriety test, which is a detail that feels both practical and heartbreaking – practical because he’s trying to protect himself, heartbreaking because he has to carry a note to prove his body doesn’t cooperate with the test.

Finley also mentions this is not the first time someone with autism has taken that step, referencing another case in his broader investigation, and the implication is simple: if people have to carry medical documentation to avoid wrongful arrest, then the system is asking citizens to adapt to its flaws instead of the other way around.

There is also the reputational damage that never makes it into a courtroom transcript; once you’re arrested for DUI, people assume the worst, employers notice, neighbors gossip, and even if you are cleared later, the experience can change how you view police, your own safety, and the basic idea that truth wins quickly.

Finley’s nationwide approach makes that reputational harm feel bigger because it suggests thousands of people across dozens of states may have lived through the same shock: “I’m sober,” followed by “turn around, you’re under arrest.”

Why This Story Makes People Nervous For The “Wrong” Reasons

This is the kind of investigation that freaks people out not because they plan to drive drunk, but because they’ve driven tired, driven stressed, driven with a medical condition, or driven after a long shift and worried they might say the wrong thing if pulled over.

Finley’s reporting quietly highlights a truth that doesn’t get enough respect: the roadside is not a clinic, and police officers are not neurologists, sleep specialists, or disability evaluators, even though field sobriety testing can end up functioning like a rough medical judgment in practice.

There’s also a trust issue that grows over time, because every “sober DUI” story chips away at public confidence in enforcement tools, and that’s bad for everyone – including officers – because impaired driving enforcement only works when the public believes the process is fair.

And while it’s easy to say “just take a blood test,” the problem is that the blood test often comes after the arrest, after the night in jail, after the tow, after the humiliation, which means the system’s safety net is catching people far too late.

What Happens Next, And What Finley Wants Viewers To Do

Finley says WSMV4’s investigation is continuing, and he specifically points people toward the interactive map on the station’s app, encouraging viewers to explore the cases state by state and understand how widespread the claims have become.

He also reports that the Pelham Police Department confirmed an internal investigation into Beery’s arrest, which at least signals the case is not being brushed aside as “nothing to see here.”

The deeper question his report leaves hanging is the one people will keep asking until someone answers it directly: if a test can label nearly half of sober people as “failures” under certain conditions, how comfortable should we be treating that test like the deciding factor in whether someone loses their freedom on the side of the road?

Finley doesn’t offer a simple fix in this segment, but the direction of his reporting is clear – if the country is going to keep relying on field sobriety tests as a gateway to arrest, then the country is going to have to grapple with how often that gateway is swinging open for the wrong person.