There's a lot of cans floating around here. Y'all wouldn't know anything about that, would you? N just got bit by each other, man. Only thing I'm worried about is getting Yeah, we got to get to shore fast. Is there anyone on the vessel that has not had a drink today? We are working on making contact. You're the one that dropped the bell, please. [Music] On October 7th, 2023, Officer Gibbons of the FWC was on water patrol near Dub Key in Monroe County when he observed a 20ft vessel with 12 occupants backing away from a large white cabin boat. While approaching the vessel, Officer Given observed the multiple alcoholic beverage containers floating in the water downwind of the vessel. The officer will soon make contact with the vessel, noting several intoxicated occupants and the operator, later identified as Adam. Seeing that I get so many questions and misinformed comments, I'm going to break down some of the interactions in this video as well as audit the field sobriety tests performed on Adam in this video because so many of you guys don't seem to understand them and nor do I sometimes. If you hate these short breakdowns nor my voice, I'll be including time codes on the screen so you can skip past these, but you're going to be missing out. Can you get the registration for me? Having a party out here, aren't we? Not really. How you doing, officer? Good. How are y'all? You mind wrapping this through the the center console thing for me? I just got bit by a jellyfish. You got any medicine? Uh, it's called stinging, but uh, no. No, I did not. Are they poisonous out here? Uh, I wouldn't really say poisonous. I've never gotten stung before. Yeah, me either, man. I'm really scared. It won't hurt you. Well, it hurts, but it's not going to kill you or anything. Where y'all from? West. We're from here. Okay. Y'all wouldn't know anything about all these cans floating around, would you? Y'all wouldn't know anything about all these cans floating around. Excuse me. There's a lot of cans floating around here. Y wouldn't know anything about that, would you? No, sir. I just got bit by fish, man. Yeah, we were just tubing and wakeboard. Only thing I'm worried about is getting on the shore. Yeah, we got to get to shore fast. We're just trying to go home back to West. Two of us just got stuck. Yeah, we got twice. It's really bad. That's what I'm saying, man. I got my reaction. I can see it right here. It's allergic reaction. Me and the yellow, bro. We ain't really [ __ ] with the ocean, are we? My eyes like really it's all on my stomach too. What are you looking for? No registration on board. What's your name? You have your driver's license on you? This really hurts. I need 10 right now. should match my brother's license. What's your name? Officer Given. All righty, Captain. We're going to run through a safety inspection. I need you to grab all the safety equipment for me. All right. We just got the boat rewired, so everything got moved around. Okay. They're probably Okay. So, if this boat started sinking, what are you going to do? Okay. Do you have flares? Uh, I'm not sure. We throw out We throw out everything whenever we got the boat. Do you have a horn or whistle on the vessel? Okay. Do you mind opening the cooler for me? This cooler? Yes, sir. You don't mind opening that cooler for me? This [ __ ] over here. So, no life jackets at all on board. No, sir. But we we live right there though. Okay. The boat. We're like headed in right here. We were tied up with that boat. The boat together. Where Where are y'all staying at? We're in Duck Key. Duck Key. Yes, sir. Okay. Like we're not even 2 minutes down the canal. Okay. There anyone on the vessel that has not had a drink today? So, only two of you drank, right? Guys, come on. I have mine, too. Okay. Um you're you're given some signs of possible impairment. Uh I don't want to risk or I can't make you drive or ask you to drive until I I know for sure that you're not not impaired. So with that uh and you don't have any safety gear on on the vessel, I would like I'd like to get this vessel back to the dock where you're at and continue to stop there. That way we can run through this. At this point in the encounter, Officer Given is suspicious of a BUI, boating under the influence, and has completed phase one of his investigation, which will allow him to lawfully administer SFSTs, standard field sobriety tests. Basically, the moment the officer made contact with the captain, the test had started. Law enforcement generally looks for five things: a moving boating violation, an equipment violation, expired registration, unusual operating actions, or evidence of drinking or drugs in the vessel. Now, let's audit this encounter. When the officer asked for the vessel registration, the captain provided the officer with his Florida boating safety ID card without being asked to do so. He also had trouble removing it from his wallet. And this mistake doesn't seem like a big deal, but it's often considered not following directions in the eye of the law. The captain also had trouble removing his ID from his wallet. And I actually wasn't too surprised to see that officer Given had actually added a time code for when he was fumbling in his wallet. When the captain started looking for the vessel registration, he stumbled and caught himself on the rail of the center console and throughout the encounter was often seen bracing himself or leaning on objects to keep himself steady and in the end he was unable to locate his registration. The officer then conducted a safety inspection asking for all safety equipment on the boat, which I will add is a bit vague and unusual considering most by investigations I've watched, law enforcement will be specific with what they want to see. Here's an example of how they usually go. How y'all doing? Just want to check your life jackets. Everybody could hold one up for me. That being said, the captain will eventually ask what safety equipment the officer was looking for. And the officer says he's looking for life jackets, specifically 12 of them for everyone on board the vessel, which is fair because what are they going to do if the vessel sinks? But in the end, the captain was unable to locate any of the required equipment. And I want to note that one of them was literally on the center console, the horn of the vessel. He didn't even try honking it. Since we're not actually there, we are unable to determine if the officer actually smelt alcohol. But in his report, he stated, "I could not differentiate where the odor of a strong unknown alcoholic beverage was coming from, as the odor was so profuse from the entirety of the vessel." The officer also asked to inspect the two coolers on the boat, and although we cannot see inside the coolers very well, the officer also made this statement. Two coolers on the vessel contained multiple empty alcoholic beverage containers, some of which had puncture holes, presumably from shotgunning, a method to rapidly consume a beverage. Some of the beverage brands on the vessel matched the cans I observed floating on the surface while approaching the vessel. That being said, I'd like to say I'm not exactly sure if the captain is required by law to show the officer what's inside the cooler. One reason being is I've yet to see an officer from the FWC board a non-fishing vessel in open coolers without the owner's consent first except for this one time. When I get on board and look and check the hatches, if there's alcohol on board, we're going to take the next step. What's up? Why is there alcohol? Going once, going twice. Okay, man. Step on my boat. Step on up. Open that up. Huh? Interesting. But you will note that after the officer opened the cooler, he quickly shuts it and then asks one of the other people on board to open it for him. Probably because the statute that gives law enforcement authority to inspect storage containers without consent or warrants seems to only apply to vessels used for fishing or storing fish or other resources from the ocean. Seeing that there are no fishing rods or any other evidence of fishing, I will assume that this statute didn't apply to this stop and that's why he asked for consent first. Moving on, I believe that the captain of this vessel has shown obvious signs of impairment and Officer Given is justified in continuing his by investigation on shore or dock. I I don't know. And by the way, if you like my video breakdowns of these encounters, let me know in the comments. Lately, I've been keeping my videos shorter to appeal to the YouTube algorithm, but it's actually driving me nuts. I often edit out segments where I've broken down things I found interesting because I feared some of you wouldn't appreciate it. I fear that my channel would be perceived as one of those faceless body cam channels where they just crank out body cam footage and use AI generated voiceovers, and you really never know who owns the channel. And I hate that. It's lazy or they have horrible voices. I I don't know. Also, I'm going to start using my avatar. this stupid thing. I know it bothers some of you boomers watching, but I've been successfully using it for years now on my other channel and everyone loves it. So, let me know how much you hate it in the comments. I have my voters. I just don't have it on me. You can look it up. That's fine. Yeah. Uh yeah, I I'll agree to that. I'll let you drive back to dock. I'll follow you. Uh just a slow slow putt in and then uh I'll continue this at the dock. Okay. You know, Officer Willie Willie Guerrero. Yes, sir. If you ask him, he knows me. Okay. And like I'm working on my captain's license right now. So what about I know Caldwell. Yeah. So I'd rather continue this at the dock so we can kind of let them uh not be in the middle of all this. Sorry. You mind driving back? Yes. I'll hold everything. I'm going to follow you back to the dock. Okay. Sir, this is like full. I got really stung by a jellyfish all throughout here. Is there What do I do to improve for that? I have like severe eczema as well. Okay. Usually it's just time. Time takes it away. Uh you can get some kind of ointments from the like pharmacy that can help. Yeah, they can help minimize this thing. But uh is there something I can do right now? Not right now. No, not that I know of. Thank you, officer. No problem. So, in a nutshell, the officer asks for the address they were staying at and then allows one of the passengers to drive back to its dock. While in route, officer given radios for backup and gives dispatch the address he will need assistance at. I'm going to point out what I'm going to point out one more thing because I'm a hell of annoying. It looks to me like the captain took over operation of the vessel again, which probably is not going to go super well for him considering he was given instructions not to do that. Hey, I need everybody over here now. How's it going, guys? Hi. Hi. What's up? What's going on? What's up? How's it going? Do you usually just pull in straight like that? No, I norally turn the boat since he's here. I just want to get him. All right. The arriving officer just asked the captain of the vessel if he normally docks his boat like that because he kind of just pulled it in and everybody else just parks inside. In many other videos I've made, officers use poor docking skills as probable cause to conduct SFSD. So cool. Good. You guys need ID? No, not from you. Now that everyone's off the vessel, you try to find all the safety equipment and the registration. Is this Does this guy have anything to do with what you're doing? No. Scram. It's my boat. Don't care. Well, do you want registration? Yeah. Yeah, you can get the registration, but should be on the boat. I don't think it's on the boat. No. How old are you? I'm 17. Okay. You weak of alcohol right now. So, you know, I just Right. Just one life jacket. Yeah. Should be on here, right? Well, not earlier. Uh, is that it? Just no flares, no fire extinguisher, no whistle, no registration on board. All right. Now, everyone's off and the boat doesn't completely wreak like alcohol. I would like to conduct a few tasks to see if you're intoxicated. Okay. Yes, sir. All right. You can take a seat. Just get comfortable. You got anything to do with anybody else on the boat? Um, no. Again, everybody else is good. Yeah, that's good. You got any information on or anything like that? You want their information? Uh, just the driver would be good to have her information. The the one that brought it in, the lady that drove the boat in. Hey guys. Hi. Who uh who drove the boat back? I drove it back. You drove it back. Do you have your ID on you? I don't. I'm from Key West, but he needed a sober driver. Okay, I got you. You don't have a picture of your driver's license? I don't. Okay, that's fine. Oh, I have it in the car. I can go. Yeah, if you want to go grab that, that'd be that'd be good. Let just let me know when she gets back. Now, do you have any physical defects or disabilities? I have dyslexia, ADHD, and um slight um autism. Okay. Now, one thing I'd like to explain in this video, as opposed to my other videos, is the seated SFST. It's very different than the standing SFSTs you'll see in DUI investigations that are largely dependent on a person's ability to balance. And often being at sea can disrupt a person's equilibrium and balance. In layman's terms, they have sea legs, and if an officer conducted standing SFSTs, it would make an easy defense in court. I'd also like to say that sea legs wear off a minimum of 15 minutes once on land, but I've yet to see an officer wait the 15 minutes to administer the test standing. Instead, they go right for the seated SFSTs to avoid testing balance and evaluate cognitive function. And if you were paying attention, the operator just stated that he has dyslexia, ADHD, and autism. And I'm no doctor, but I believe that this guy is going to have some trouble considering I've watched this test performed a hundred times, and I still can't grasp it. Do you have any defects with your eyes? Okay. I know you said you wore glasses. Do you know what that's for? Um near nearsightedness? Yes, sir. Okay. Are you sick or injured? No, sir. Okay. Are you under the care of a doctor or dentist? No, sir. Are you taking any medication or drugs? No, sir. I'm going to check your eyes, hold your head still, and follow stimulus with your eyes only. Do you understand? Yes, sir. As the officer stated, he's now testing for horizontal gaze nestagmas, which is involuntary jerking of the eyes occurring as the eyes gaze toward the side. When you're intoxicated, it looks like this. Unfortunately, it seems like a difficult thing for officers to actually capture on body cam. So, I gave you that example. But here are the four clues that Officer Given observed while conducting the test. So, the next one we're going to do is finger to nose. So, make a fist with both hands and extend your fingers and turn your palms forward like so. Yeah. Turn your palms forward. Thank you. Remain in this position while I explain the task. Do you understand? Yes, sir. When I say begin, tilt your head back to about a 45 degree angle and close your eyes. So 45 and just close your eyes. Okay. When I tell you you touch the tip of your nose with the tip of your finger, index finger, and immediately return it to your side. So the tip of your finger. Which one? Left or right? I I'll tell you which side to go with. Okay. So the tip of your finger. This is the tip. If you'll look at look at my finger. So this is the tip, not the pad or the sides. Okay. So the tip to the tip of your nose. Very tip where the fingernail ends. Yes, sir. So the tip. So when I tell you again, you'll tilt your head back. All right. Just watch me. And you'll tip a nose. Tip a finger. Okay. Yes, sir. When I say right, you must touch your right index finger to your nose. When I say left, you must touch your left index finger to your nose. Do you understand? Yes, sir. Begin. Left. Right. Left, right, right, left. So the next one we're going to do is called palm pat. So you'll place your hands palm to palm with one hand up and one hand down. Like that's palm to palm, right? Like this. Like that. That's towards each other. Okay. Palm palm to palm. Hands like this. Straight forward. Okay. Remain in this position while I explain the task. Do you understand? Yes, sir. When I tell you to begin, turn the top hand over and count out loud one. Then turn the hand back over and count out loud two. counting only when the hands make contact like this. One, two, one. Yes, sir. Okay. Repeat this. Speed up as you go and do not stop until told. Make sure to keep your hands and fingers parallel during each pat like this. Okay. Do you understand? Yes, sir. Okay. Begin. speed up. Okay, you may quit. Make a fist with both hands. Place your left fist at the center of your chest and your right fist against your left fist like this. So, yes, sir. Remain in this position while I explain the task. Do you understand? Yes, sir. Okay. When I say begin, you must perform four tasks. The first task is to count out loud from 1 to four. While you move your fist in a step-like fashion, make contact between your fist at each step. Okay? One, two, three, four. Not against my chest. No, it's out in a step-like fashion. Okay? So, one, two, three, four. Understand? Okay. The second task is to memorize the position of your fist after you have counted to four. Clap your hands three times and return your fist to the memorized position. One, two, three, four. The third task is to move your fist in a step-like fashion in reverse order, counting out loud from five to eight and returning your left fist to your chest. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. The fourth task is to open your hands with palms down and place them in your lap. So sorry. Palms down in your palms down. Palms down in your life. Yes sir. Uh do you understand? Yes sir. Okay. You may begin. Thank you sir. So at this time I do believe the normal faculties are impaired. Okay. So, she'll stand up and just turn around for me. Are you arresting me? Yes, sir. Okay. You're driving a boat with your normal faculty impaired. I was driving in the open water. I'm 17, man. Please. Yeah. So, you're alcohol is actually less. All right. Turn around. Put your hands behind your back. What's going on here? You're operating a vessel with normal faculties impaired, sir. What about everybody else? I didn't test anybody else driving that boat, please. Man, it's it's just a BUI. Okay. You'll have to go through it and deal with it, right? Underage, man. Come on. I understand. Hey, the the court says how you deal with it. Okay. You made that decision when you drove a boat. What happened to that boat? What happened with him? I stopped you because you were pulling away from that boat. Okay. And I saw all the people on board without a single life jacket on the boat. Now, there's no doubt in my mind that this kid's over the legal limit, and he definitely should not have been operating the boat at the time, but he does have a few points that I would like to point out. According to the Florida statute 562.11, underage drinking in the state of Florida is illegal, much like it is in the whole United States, and I've actually made about five videos featuring people under the age of 21 getting citations for it. Yet, the officers here seemed to turn a blind eye. The other point that he made that was equally as good, before officer Given stopped this vessel, another vessel could be seen pulling away from it. We later see that same vessel docked at the home with the owner standing by waiting. In fact, one of the FWC officers actually called him out for smelling like alcohol. I don't think it's No. How old are you? I'm 17. Okay. You of alcohol right now, just so you know. I just Right. The officers might have let this go for a few reasons, but I'd be willing to bet that the officer couldn't see who was in operation of the vessel because he was operating the boat at the time. Generally, FWC officers patrol the waters in groups of two or three, enabling one of the officers to scout out potential vessels with binoculars, helping them establish who's in control of the vessel from a distance, just in case the operator wants to switch seats. And by the way, I've made two videos about FWC officers arresting people for BUI that weren't even operating the boat. They were just standing at the controls with the engine off watching an air show. But when the officer looked at them through the binoculars, they were standing at the controls and they got the BUI charge. All right. How much How much have you had to drink today? I'm not driving. Yeah, I know. How much have you had to drink today? Yeah. What's that? Three or four beers. Three or four? Okay. Um, you mind me checking your eyes real quick? Look at everybody else over there, man. Why you Why? Why, dude? It's It's my job. Can you talk to your supervisor for me, please, man? Can you let me off with a warning at least or something? There's so many other people here, man. You're the one operating the vessel. I wasn't, though. Did you test the girl that was driving the way back? Not yet. Can you test her? Kids, when I talk to her, she seems okay. Every single person here, please, man. We're all kids. I understand that. And you should know better and be operating. I'm not I don't know better, dude. Well, you'll learn. How long you been on the job for? Been on the job for a little under a year. A little under a year. I'm I'm 17, dude. Please understand that, dude. Are your parents here or your parents are dead with? My mom. My dad's passed away though. Okay. So, your mom, you live around here. Why can't you just let me off the break? It's a little late now. Followed us all the way back. I backed up. I literally Where's your mom? Where's your mom at? Is she here? No, she's in Port. Okay. Do you know her phone number? You have it in your phone? Yes. Where is your phone? My pocket, I believe. All right. Do you mind if he gets that out of there? I do. You don't want us to call her? Why? Why? Because you're under 18. Why? He's already explained all that to you. We're not explaining it to you again. Okay. Currently, Adam is being transported by Officer Edge to the Key West jail because there is no juvenile detention center in Key West. There actually is no juvenile uh department in Marathon. So, we have to go down to Key West. I'm not a bad person. Nobody Hey, listen, man. Nobody's saying you're a bad person in my house at least. Uh, no. Hey, talk to Can I talk to your supervisor? That was my supervisor. While being transported, Adam stated that he had to urinate. And Officer Given explained that he could use the bathroom when he arrives at the jail. Adam then explained that he would urinate all over the seats of the patrol truck if he didn't let him go to the bathroom. So, they found him a portable toilet in a construction zone. Hey. Hey, this way. How about stay with us? You put your hands down. All right. You're good. Put your hands down. While back on route to the Key West jail, Adam began breathing heavy and sobbing uncontrollably and appeared to be in respiratory distress. So, the officers parked and radioed for EMS. Yo, what is going on, man? What do you got going on? Let me take this seat belt off. Face that way. You got to talk to me. What's going on? Are you just upset because you don't want to go to jail? Are you Are you okay? What is wrong? I don't want to go to jail. You just don't want to go to jail. Please just take me to my mom. [Music] Can I call my mom? We tried to do that earlier. Can you get my mom? Can I Can I go to my mom? Did we try to do that earlier? Can I go to my mom? I'm going to shut the door and leave you in here if you're not going to answer my questions. Now, did we or did we not ask you for your mother's name and phone number? And you said what? No. Am I correct? Let let me explain. Hey, can I go to my mall, please? I don't want to go to Q for two days, please. We tried to get this information from you. Can you call my mom, please? Well, we've already we already asked you that earlier. You know when we're going to call them. We are contacting them. I'm so sorry. Please. Just don't take me. We've already contacted them. Why can't I just go home? Because no one because no one's there. We are working on making contact. You're the one that dropped the bell. Please. You put this seat belt on. If you mess up my truck, you're going to get an additional charge for criminal. Please call my mom. Please. We have already started that. I've already pick you up here. Please. She's not picking you up here. Why? Because she's 17. I don't need a record. Please, please move your elbow in. Please, please, sir. Please. No. Absolutely not. A bit later, EMS arrives on scene and determines that Adam's vital signs were normal. And Adam refuses transport to the hospital. We got a hold of your mom. What' you say? Going to start crying again. I'm not going to tell you. We're going to take you back to Marathon to their station right there. And we're going to ask you to give us a sample of your breath. If you calm down and you're cooperative and you do what you're supposed to do, we're going to let you go with your mom. Adam was given a breath test. His first sample concluded that his breath alcohol concentration was 0071 and his second sample was 0.81. Adam was given several citations and then released to the custody of his mother. It's going to warn you, you know, if this would happen two months down the road when you're 18, it doesn't work out this way. Adam was charged with operating the vessel while normal faculties impaired and received several citations. At the time I'm making this video, it appears that Adam's case is still ongoing. But in the notes, it says transferred to CJ, which I'll be honest with you guys, I haven't a clue what that means. So, if you know, I'd love for you to tell me in the comments. And if you guys like today's video, be sure to like and subscribe if you haven't already. And be sure to check out some of my other videos on my channel because I feel like they're equally as good and you might be missing out.