9 Investigates: 'Illegal' OPD traffic stop

ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orlando man was forced to drop his pants in public during a strip search before being arrested on charges of drug possession, but a prosecutor declined to prosecute the case, because he said the traffic stop that led to the search was illegal.

Censored photos provide a snapshot into the humiliation an Orlando man endured. He was handcuffed, his pants were down and his private parts were exposed in a gas station parking lot on John Young Parkway.

The driver, who was represented by a public defender, was accused of leaving his vehicle unattended without first stopping the engine while pumping gas, which is against state law.

"If a cop says turn it off, be safe, none of this happens," public defender Bob Wesley said.

An assistant state attorney dropped the charges, writing a scathing memo reading in part, "The defendant ... committed no traffic violation. Yet the officers conducted a traffic stop, seized the defendant, removed him from his car and searched both him and his vehicle."

The prosecutor went on to say, "There was no probable cause ... reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. The traffic stop was illegal."

So the search that led to the drug charges was poisoned, prosecutors said.

Orlando police Chief John Mina told Channel 9 that the traffic stop could have been handled differently.

"It's always a head scratch to us when we see an over aggressive police officer who must know that this is an illegal search," Wesley said. "They have training."

Records said Orlando police Officer Ryan Sayer appealed a 16-hour suspension and received an oral reprimand.

Internal Affairs found that he did not establish probable cause and the stop was improper and illegal, records said.

Documents said he was exonerated of falsifying his report, although what he wrote was different from what he told internal affairs.

The investigator said it was a "poor articulation of the facts."

Orlando police Officer John Edwards was also given an oral reprimand, because internal affairs found that although the strip search was justified, he failed to conform to the required guidelines, records said.

"This is a case where they found drugs on the individual after stripping him naked, so they say we justified the search. We got the bad guys," Wesley said.

Sayer is under investigation for a different incident in which he fired at a mentally ill man who was threatening to harm himself, records said.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents said they turned over that case to prosecutors in August, but they haven't made a determination in the case.

Cox Media Group