Twice he tried to help the cops as a witness. Their mistakes landed him in jail

Adam Thornton thought he was doing the right thing when he called 911 early on the morning of March 9 after he witnessed someone, maybe a drunken driver, speeding on Cortez Road and running red lights.

More than five months later, Thornton witnessed a crash on 63rd Avenue West near US 41 and again called authorities. But what happened after he provided a witness statement has had a profound impact on his life.

Thornton was arrested that night, Aug. 20, on a warrant issued for a driving under the influence charge after the case in March in which he was only a witness.

“I don’t know what it could be,” Thornton recalled telling deputies at the scene of the crash in August.

The paperwork and $120 bond didn’t make sense to deputies, but they had no choice but to arrest him.

The driver in the DUI case, Adam Williams, had been arrested on March 9 and charged with leaving the scene of the crash and possession of marijuana. He was arrested again when formal charges, including a new DUI charge, were filed by the state attorney’s office.

But a mistake by Bradenton police in switching Thornton and Williams’ last names on paperwork, and subsequent failures by the state attorney’s office, led to DUI charges being filed against the wrong “Adam” and a warrant being issued for Thornton’s arrest.

“Everywhere I look, there is something new, some ripple effect of what happened,” Thornton said.

The prosecutor assigned Williams’ case realized the error in the paperwork when he filed formal charges, according to Assistant State Attorney Darlene Ragoonanan, the chief of the misdemeanor division in Manatee County. The Bradenton police officer who handled the DUI charged wrote a supplemental report dated March 29 acknowledging the error.

A capias request was then sent to the state attorney’s office, but somehow the names were still swapped. That time the paperwork went to a different prosecutor in the misdemeanor division. Williams’ case was being handled by a prosecutor in the felony division since the case against him includes felony charges.

The second prosecutor filed formal charges of DUI against Thornton and a warrant was issued by a judge.

“Once we learned that law enforcement had the wrong name as the accused, we immediately dropped the charges and did everything through the court to remove his name form arrest records,” Ragoonanan said. “We feel terrible for this happening to a good Samaritan that went out of his way to contact to law enforcement and we took immediate corrective action.”

The Bradenton Police Department is trying to determine exactly how and where the errors occurred.

“Obviously, this is a terrible incident. Our Office of Professional Standards is doing a thorough review on both the process and officer, to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again,” Lt. Brian Thiers said.

Thornton had never been interviewed by either prosecutor before the formal charges were filed. Instead, both prosecutors filed charges based on the reports from law enforcement.

After dropping the charge against Thornton, the state attorney’s office filed a motion to the court on Aug. 22 to have the entire case expunged from his record. Present at the hearing in which the judge ultimately granted the request were attorneys representing the state, the sheriff’s office, Bradenton police, the clerk of court and Williams. Thornton was not present, however, because he was never even informed of the hearing, he said.

Meanwhile, Thornton is still suffering the consequences of the arrest.

“It’s hit me pretty hard financially and almost cost me my relationship,” he said on Thursday.

Thornton’s fiancee and mother of their three children didn’t believe him at first that he could be wrongfully arrested for DUI. Their relationship already had struggles, he said, and his arrest was almost the breaking point.

Since his arrest, his custom car business, Blak Magik Kustoms, has also taken a hit. Many clients are unwilling to trust him with their cars after learning of the DUI arrest.

And even though the DUI charge against Thornton was dropped and wiped from his record, his driver’s license still remains suspended, he said. As a result, he can’t drive and has had to incur further costs to get around using Uber and taxis.

Thornton has since retained an attorney, and they are working to determine the financial losses he has and is continuing to suffer.

The goal is to restore Thornton’s reputation and make him financially whole again, according to attorney Shelton Bridges. A lawsuit has not been filed.

However, “If we have to, we will,” Bridges said..