A traffic citation issued to Kathleen Thomas, a woman born without part of her right arm, was dismissed after a deputy accused her of holding a phone while driving in Lake Worth Beach, Florida. The incident, which occurred on February 11, gained widespread attention after Thomas posted a video of the traffic stop on TikTok, highlighting the deputy’s claim that he saw her using a device with her “right hand.”
“You drove past me holding a phone with your right hand, manipulating that phone,” the deputy tells her.
“Obviously not,” Thomas responds while holding up her right arm to show the officer that she was born without her right hand.
“So you wanna call this a day?” she asks.
“I don’t want to call this a day. You had a hand up, manipulating,” the deputy told her.
After some back and forth, the deputy doubled down and continued to ask her if she was using her phone.
“I’m asking you now; did you or not have your phone in your hand?”
“I did not,” Thomas told him.
“You did not have your phone in your hand?” he asks again.
“I did not,” Thomas replies.
“Hand to God, you didn’t have a phone in your hand?” the deputy asks.
“Hand to God,” Thomas says.
The officer didn’t seem to care that Thomas was incapable of holding a phone because she was born without a right hand and wrote her a $116 citation, which she planned to fight.
Court records reveal that the citation was dismissed at the request of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputy who issued it. The hearing, initially scheduled for Tuesday, was canceled following the case’s dismissal. The citation accused Thomas of violating Florida’s wireless communications while driving law, which prohibits manually typing or entering data into a device while operating a vehicle.
You can watch a video of the traffic stop below:
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