A Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputy swore under oath William David Salage reeked of booze, but a blood test showed he had neither alcohol nor drugs in his system, county records show.
This is the third such incident documented by the News Sentinel in which a KCSO deputy pledged the truthfulness of the words “defendant had a strong odor of alcohol” when blood tests conducted by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation belied the claim.
In each case, DUI charges were dropped as a result of negative blood tests, records show, but not before the arrestees spent hours in jail, had their vehicles seized, forked out bond money and saw their mug shots splashed on the Internet and in tabloids.
