WBIR Channel 10 reporter Noah Noble walks viewers through a strange traffic stop out of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where police arrested a Mississippi officer for DUI after a night that looked more like a bad vacation story than a professional training trip.
The man arrested, according to Noble’s report and the body-camera footage he highlights, was Gulfport Police Sergeant Joseph James Prine Jr.
Noble says Prine was in Gatlinburg for out-of-state training, described as an FBI leadership class, and the arrest happened just before 10 p.m. after a stop about an hour earlier.
Noble’s video shows Prine arriving at the police station in handcuffs, and the tone is hard to miss: this wasn’t a small mistake handled quietly behind closed doors. It played out in front of officers wearing a different badge in a different state, and the cameras were already rolling.
What makes the scene pop is the detail Noble keeps returning to: Prine was not pulled over for drifting a little or missing a turn signal.
According to the Gatlinburg officers shown in the footage, he was driving an unmarked black Ford Explorer with blue emergency lights flashing and a siren blaring, like he was running a real call.
What Officers Say They Saw On The Strip
In Noah Noble’s telling, Gatlinburg police said the Explorer was moving through traffic in a way that made drivers yield, and Prine was passing cars that were getting out of his way.
Police also said he briefly drove on the wrong side of the road, and then shut off the lights as he went by a Gatlinburg officer, which is the kind of move that screams, “Please look at me,” even if that wasn’t the plan.
Officers pulled him over near Anakeesta, and Noble notes the vehicle was “city-owned” and “unmarked,” which matters because it wasn’t a private rental or a personal truck on a weekend trip. It was a government vehicle, in another state, running emergency equipment it didn’t have the authority to use there.
On the body cam, the first words are casual, almost friendly, like the officer is trying to figure out what he’s dealing with before he decides how serious it is. “Hello,” the officer says, and then, “Hey buddy,” which is not the greeting you expect if someone just flew past with lights and siren.
But that friendly tone doesn’t last long. Noble shows another Gatlinburg officer on the passenger side spotting open beer cans inside the Explorer, and you can hear the disbelief in his voice when he asks why there are beer cans in a government agency vehicle.
Prine tries to talk his way through it, but the officers clearly don’t buy it. One officer asks if he’s been drinking, and another answers with a blunt, “Oh yeah,” like the question was already settled.
Then Prine is asked to step out, and Noble’s report notes that Prine admits to drinking. In the footage, Prine says he had “a couple beers” at Jason Aldean’s bar, and when pressed on what “a couple” means, he lands around “three or four,” then tries to soften it again.
It’s the kind of back-and-forth that looks small, but in a DUI stop it’s huge, because the whole situation is built on whether the driver is being straight or trying to slide away from the truth.
The Search Turns Up More Than Beer
Noble’s report doesn’t stop at the open cans. When officers search the Explorer, things get worse fast, and this is where the story turns from embarrassing to genuinely alarming.
According to Noble, Prine told officers there was a gun in the center console and a knife in his pocket. Officers locate the firearm during the search, and the charge list later reflects that detail in a serious way: possession of a gun while intoxicated.
Then comes the detail that made this story travel online: the “moonshine pickles.” In the video coverage, officers find an open jar, and the way it’s described makes it clear it wasn’t a sealed souvenir sitting unopened in a bag. The jar is open, the seal is broken, and it’s in the vehicle during the stop.
It’s almost cartoonish on paper – blue lights, siren, beer, gun, and a jar of pickles soaked in liquor – but that’s exactly why it sticks. It reads like a joke until you remember this was happening on public roads, with other families driving through a tourist town at night.
In the footage Noble shows, officers run Prine through field sobriety tests, including heel-to-toe walking and a balance test. The implication is clear: he didn’t do well enough to talk his way out of it.
Soon after, you hear the moment that ends it. “All right, man, if you’ll go and put your hands on your back for me,” the officer says, and the arrest is underway.
Breath Test Refused, Blood Test Accepted
Noah Noble points out that Prine refused to give a breath sample at the scene, which is a choice that a lot of people make, thinking it will keep things vague. In Tennessee, though, the officer explains the consequences right away.
Noble notes Tennessee’s implied consent rules: refuse the test, and your license gets suspended. In the footage, the officer asks about a blood sample, and Prine agrees to that instead.
The blood sample was sent out for testing, according to Noble, and Prine was charged with three misdemeanors: driving under the influence, open display or open container of alcohol, and possession of a gun while intoxicated.
A second detail in Noble’s reporting adds a layer of confusion: the Explorer’s VIN traced to a 2015 Ford Explorer, but it didn’t show an owner or agency listed, even though Prine told officers it belonged to the City of Gulfport Police Department.
That kind of paperwork fog can happen for boring reasons, but it’s still a bad look when the whole stop is already going sideways.
Noble also notes Prine had a passenger, and the body cam shows that man being detained too. Officers initially handcuffed him on a disturbing the peace citation, and later took him to jail for safety after he admitted he wasn’t able to drive.
The Department Back Home Responds
After the arrest, the story moves from Gatlinburg’s curbside scene to the bigger question: what happens to an officer accused of doing this while traveling for professional training.
Noble reports that the Gulfport Police Department said Prine was placed on leave while the department conducts an internal investigation. He also says the Mississippi Board of Law Enforcement Officer Standards confirmed it is investigating the incident as well.
In a statement quoted in Noble’s coverage, Gulfport Police Chief Adam Cooper says the stop happened on the evening of December 2, 2025, and he describes Prine as off-duty while attending out-of-state training.
Cooper says Gatlinburg police charged Prine with misdemeanor offenses, and he confirms Prine is on personal leave while Gulfport conducts its internal review.
That statement reads like a department trying to sound steady and professional, but it also quietly admits something important: even if Prine was “off-duty,” he was still operating a city-owned vehicle, and that’s not the same as making a bad choice in a personal car.
A Lawyer’s Take From Southern Drawl Law
The second source comes from Southern Drawl Law, where criminal defense attorney James White breaks down the case in his own blunt style. White says Gatlinburg is where people come to “let their hair down,” and in his telling, that includes cops who forget they aren’t above the rules.
White also hammers the detail that Prine was in Tennessee for an FBI leadership training course the City of Gulfport paid for, and he frames that as the most embarrassing part.
In White’s view, a sergeant is supposed to be the person who shows up when things get tense and helps calm it down, not the guy who turns a tourist strip into his personal light-and-siren playground.
One of White’s clearest points is jurisdiction. He says Gatlinburg, Tennessee is not Gulfport, Mississippi, and Prine didn’t have the authority to run lights and siren there like he was working.
He even jokes about how many moonshine pickles someone might get from Old Smoky Distillery, but the point underneath the joke is serious: emergency equipment isn’t a toy, and pretending it is can get people hurt.
White gives Gatlinburg police credit, too. He says they didn’t treat Prine special, and they charged him the way White says he’d expect one of his own clients to be charged: DUI after failing tests, open container, and firearm possession while intoxicated.
White also offers a sharp bit of courtroom-style criticism on the field sobriety tests, basically saying Prine “should have been smart enough not to take” tests if he believed he was in trouble. That’s not a compliment, and White clearly isn’t trying to make it one.
Near the end, White speculates about consequences, saying he expects Prine could be fired and could lose certification, but he admits you never fully know how these things will go until the internal process plays out.
Why This Story Sticks With People
There’s a reason this case grabbed attention even though it’s “just” a misdemeanor DUI arrest on paper. It combines two worlds that usually stay separate: the authority of law enforcement and the very human mess of bad judgment, alcohol, and ego.
It’s also hard not to notice the irony. Noah Noble reports Prine was in an FBI leadership program, and James White keeps circling back to that word – leadership – like it’s the part that should sting the most. Training is supposed to sharpen decision-making, not expose how weak it already is.
And the moonshine pickles detail, as funny as it sounds, does something important: it makes the story vivid, almost too vivid, which means it becomes a symbol. People don’t just hear “DUI.”
They picture lights flashing, a siren blaring, a jar clinking in the console, and a gun sitting nearby while a public servant makes choices that could have ended with someone dead.
The other uncomfortable piece is the fairness question. White says Gatlinburg police didn’t cut Prine any slack, and that matters, because public trust often breaks when people believe insiders get special treatment.
If the system is going to ask citizens to accept enforcement, then enforcement has to apply even when the suspect knows the script.
For Gulfport and for every agency watching, this case is a loud reminder that “professional” isn’t a permanent label. It’s something you prove every day, and you can lose it in one sloppy hour on the road – especially if you decide to flip on blue lights and pretend you’re untouchable.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
