ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A Florida Highway Patrol trooper is the subject of an internal investigation after he made an Orange County Deputy perform a field sobriety test.
Trooper Jeremy Balzan, who has been with FHP only for about a year, has been taken off the street and placed on other duties pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
Dashcam video shows Balzan conducting a field sobriety test on former Orange County Deputy Joey Busque. Balzan said he arrested Busque because he appeared to have glazed eyes and swayed back and forth, but the deputy appears to be fine in the video.
The state attorney later dropped charges against Busque.
Some of the same inconsistencies were found in a DUI case last August against Chad Stephenson, in which Balzan also made the arrest.
A jury acquitted Stephenson because the video did not match the trooper's report.
"If you can't believe what they say happened, you lose trust in the system and all their cases fall apart," Matt Olszewski of the Florida DUI Group said.
FHP did not say if those were the cases that prompted the investigation, but Olszewski said Balzan's past problems and his current status with FHP could jeopardize everything he's done while with the agency.
"Whether it be a driving with license suspended (or) leaving the scene of an accident case to be valid as well, so it's not just DUI cases," Olszewski said.
FHP did not say how long the investigation is expected to take.
Cox Media Group
