Damon was initially charged with one count of driving under the influence and one of resisting a non-violent officer, according to a statement. From the court documents, it appears that he denied guilt on the DUI charges, and that the resistance charge was dismissed.
According to the statement, his breath test was 0.30% two hours after police first stopped him, nearly four times the state’s 0.08% threshold.
According to the affidavit, an officer said he stopped a sport utility vehicle around 1:23 a.m. after seeing it drift in the road and nearly hit a handrail.
Video shows the moment the officer approached the vehicle. As the door opens, the officer can be heard repeatedly telling Damon, “close your door” as he approaches his SUV. The video shows Damon’s wife, Michelle Mangan-Damon, getting out of the SUV and asking, “What’s happening now?”
According to the affidavit, the officer described Damon as “extremely unsteady on his feet and his speech was extremely unclear.” The officer added that he smelled alcohol coming from Damon.
The officer said Mangan-Damon’s instructions to stay in the car remained disobedient, and at one point Damon then walked back between the officer and his wife, the statement said.
The officer said he then grabbed Damon and escorted him to stand in front of the police car and ordered him to say there, the statement read.
The video shows Mangan-Damon walking to the driver’s side of the SUV when the officer grabbed her left wrist to stop her. Damon then intervened and got between the officer and the woman.
In the video, the officer can be heard in his police radio shouting ‘one-two, actually fighting’.
The body fell to the ground and showed to both Damon and the officer. At one point, Damon can be heard saying several times: ‘Blue lives matter’, a reference to his support for police officers.
According to the video and the affidavit, Damon and his wife were finally able to sit in handcuffs.
“I know people are trying to target me because I’m a Trump supporter,” Damon later said.
“I do not think it has anything to do with it,” an officer replied.
“Yes, it does,” Damon said.
“It’s not here or there; it’s not why I’re stopping you,” the officer said.
Stuart Hyman, who represents Damon and his wife, told CNN on Wednesday that the video recording was not one of the allegations made by police, including the alleged driving pattern that led to the stop.
“If you look at the video, you saw that the driving pattern was not on the video being told, and yet there was a camera in the car that could record it,” Hyman said.
Hyman added that the incident ‘was not an example of how a police officer should handle this kind of situation’, and explained that the officer did not try to decalate at times when Mangan-Damon did not comply with it, as well as when Damon try to intervene.
Hyman told CNN Mangan-Damon was not charged.
CNN has released the Windermere PD in response to the lawyer’s statements.
CNN’s Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.