Sheriff's Deputy Who Mistook Bird Poop on GSU QB's Car for Cocaine Cleared of Wrongdoing
By Jerry Trotta
This Tuesday is still fairly young, but we guarantee that this story will be the most bizarre thing you read today, folks.
Deputy Charles Allen Browder II pulled over a vehicle on a highway in South Carolina that just so happened to be driven by Georgia Southern quarterback Shai Werts.
Where this narrative took a bizarre twist, however, was when Browder determined that a white substance on Werts' windshield was cocaine. After some deliberation, it was ultimately concluded that the substance was nothing more than bird droppings, but not before Werts spent a night in jail and was briefly suspended from Georgia Southern's football team.
Deputy who mistook bird poop for cocaine cleared in case where Georgia Southern QB Shai Werts was falsely charged. Incident led to a change in how sheriff's office uses side-of-the-road drug field tests. My story in @GreenvilleNews https://t.co/0izKdU1BqJ
— Nathaniel Cary (@nathanielcary) November 12, 2019
That's right, a South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division drug lab found no evidence of cocaine on Werts' windshield.
The incident transpired nearly three months ago, and the Saluda County sheriff's office found that Browder did nothing wrong. The deputy is facing no discipline for his premature conclusion and remained on active duty while awaiting tests from the drug lab.
Georgia Southern QB Shai Werts reinstated after arrest for cocaine possession. The white substance on his car turned out to be bird poop ?https://t.co/C6NrW6HJeD
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) August 9, 2019
Per Nathaniel Cary of The Greenville News, this stems from the alleged unreliable drug field tests that deputies are given by the department to perform on the road. The sheriff's office merely found that Browder was a victim of the compromised tests, which reportedly cost no more than $2.
Something tells us that an individual shouldn't be charged with possession of a drug as serious as cocaine because a $2 drug field test told them so. As a result, an innocent man spent a night in jail and was suspended from his team in humiliating fashion.
Seems pretty elementary, but what do we know?