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Man Who Says Cops Mistook Doughnut Glaze For Meth Awarded Over $47,000

Daniel Rushing, 65, was arrested and strip-searched after the 2015 mix-up.
Daniel Rushing, 65, says he still eats Krispy Kreme doughnuts every other week despite the
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Daniel Rushing, 65, says he still eats Krispy Kreme doughnuts every other week despite the
Daniel Rushing, 65, says he still eats Krispy Kreme doughnuts every other week despite the
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Daniel Rushing, 65, says he still eats Krispy Kreme doughnuts every other week despite the

A Florida man who says he was arrested after police officers mistook crumbs from his Krispy Kreme doughnut for methamphetamine has reportedly been awarded $37,500 after reaching a settlement with the city of Orlando.

Daniel Rushing, 65, sued the city soon after his arrest in December 2015. He had been pulled over for a traffic violation when Cpl. Shelby Riggs-Hopkin spotted a “rock-like substance” on the floor of his car. Rushing insisted the substance was just flakes from the glaze of a Krispy Kreme doughnut he’d eaten, but the officer wrote in the arrest report that she “recognized through my eleven years of training and experience as a law enforcement officer the substance to be some sort of narcotic.”

Police conducted roadside drug tests on the substance, and two of them came up positive for cocaine. According to WHAS-TV, however, the officers who administered the drug tests had “not been trained properly” to use them.

Rushing told the Orlando Sentinel at the time that he was “handcuffed, arrested, taken to the county jail and strip searched.” He was held for about 10 hours before being released on a $2,500 bond.

A later test appeared to corroborate Rushing’s story. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab analysis showed that the flakes did not contain any illicit substances, though Orlando police Sgt. Wanda Ford told HuffPost last year that the test did not prove it was doughnut glaze either.

Riggs-Hopkin was reprimanded after the incident and later resigned, according to WHAS.

Daniel Rushing poses with a Krispy Kreme doughnut in 2016.
Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel via Getty Images
Daniel Rushing poses with a Krispy Kreme doughnut in 2016.

The Sentinel reported last week that the city of Orlando shelled out $37,500 to Rushing to settle the case. Earlier reports said Rushing had sought $15,000 in damages.

Rushing, a retiree who’d worked for decades with the city’s parks department, told the Sentinel that he’s had trouble finding work since the doughnut incident.

Still, he continues to eat Krispy Kreme doughnuts regularly. “He just doesn’t eat it in his car,” the paper notes.

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