February 22, 2014
A Florida woman has announced that she plans to file suit against the police department that left her locked up for a night after she recorded her conversation with an officer who pulled her over for a routine traffic stop.
Lt. William O’Brien of the Broward County Sheriff’s Department pulled over Brandy Berning, 33, last March for driving in the HOV lane at the wrong time. Berning pressed record on her cell phone as O’Brien made his way to her window, informing the officer that the conversation was being taped after they had been speaking for approximately 15 seconds.
“I have to tell you, you just committed a felony,” O’Brien replied.
The two then spent the next four minutes squabbling over the recording. O’Brien repeatedly tried to convince Berning to turn over her cell phone, warning that she would be arrested. Berning refused to give up the phone and insisted that she had committed no such crime.
Berning told the Florida Sun-Sentinel that at one point during the disagreement, O’Brien grabbed and twisted her wrist, spraining it. He then forced his way into the car’s passenger seat and tried to drag Berning from the vehicle.
“All I knew was I was trying to keep my phone,” Berning now says. “I knew I couldn’t give him my phone, because I didn’t know why he was acting the way he was if he didn’t plan on doing something wrong.”
She was eventually apprehended and spent one night in jail. Berning was released the next day without being charged or given an explanation. She has now informed the Broward Sheriff’s Office that she plans to sue over the matter.