Background: Thomas Manis takes a field sobriety test administered by Tennessee Highway Patrol (WSMV). Insets, top to bottom: Angela Manis, Thomas Manis (WSMV).
A driver in Tennessee is suing the state and two state troopers for $1 million after he says he was wrongfully arrested and detained for DUI despite being completely sober.
Thomas Manis was pulled over while driving along U.S. 411 in Monroe County, which is about 50 miles south of Knoxville, on Dec. 29, 2023, according to a federal lawsuit filed in The Volunteer State. Trooper Riley Shreiner told him the tint on his windows was too dark — an allegation Manis says is baseless.
The complaint says that as Shreiner ordered Manis to provide his license, registration, and proof of insurance, Manis cooperated, remaining “respectful, restrained, courteous, and compliant” throughout.
Nevertheless, Shreiner went back to his patrol car and shared Manis’ name with his colleague, Officer William Yates-Matoy, who was with him on the scene. Shreiner told Yates-Matoy that he “saw no evidence of intoxication, nor did he smell marijuana,” the complaint said.
Yates-Matoy, however, knew who Manis was — and allegedly drew his own conclusions about his state of mind.
“Upon learning of the Plaintiff’s identity, Officer Yates-Matoy stated that he knew the Plaintiff’s brother and he ‘guaranteed’ Plaintiff had weed in his vehicle and that Plaintiff had probably smoked weed the morning of the incident in question,” the complaint said.
At this point, Shreiner went back to Manis’ car and asked him about drug use. When Manis asked Shreiner why he was being interrogated, Shreiner told Manis that his “eyes were red, therefore [Manis] was suspected of driving under the influence,” the complaint alleged.
Manis told Shreiner that “his eyes were red because he had just woken up,” the complaint said.
That’s when Yates-Matoy, “unsatisfied” with Manis’ successful performance on the field sobriety test, took over, the lawsuit alleges — instructing Manis to perform additional field sobriety tests and asking him to recall the most recent time he smoked marijuana.
As Manis’ traffic stop was happening, his mother, Angela Manis, drove by and pulled over to the side of the road.
“Why is my son being arrested?” she is heard asking Shreiner, who is wearing a bodycam, according to a report from Nashville NBC affiliate WSMV.
“For driving under the influence, ma’am,” Shreiner replies.
“He has not been drinking, sir!” Angela Manis says.
“If you have falsely arrested him, you’re going to be in trouble,” she is also heard saying on the bodycam. “I promise you, because I know my son.
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According to WSMV, the body camera footage shows Shreiner repeatedly turning off his audio — once during a conversation with Yates-Matoy and once during a conversation with a tow-truck driver, who had asked the trooper if Manis was drunk.
Manis, who allegedly passed additional field tests, told the officers that it had been four years since he last smoked, and guaranteed that if he was given a blood test, it would come back clear. Yates-Matoy then administered more tests on Manis before arresting him for DUI.
“Plaintiff was placed in the back of the patrol car, despondent, dehumanized, handcuffed and, in fact, sober as established by the blood test subsequently administered,” the complaint said.
The lawsuit says that later tests confirmed that neither drugs nor alcohol were in Manis’ system at the time of the arrest.
Thomas Manis v. Tennessee — complaint (court filing)
Despite this, the complaint says, Manis “spent several hours in jail, his mugshot was taken and made publicly available, and his vehicle was seized and towed to the police impound yard.”
Months later, in April, the charges were dropped, according to the complaint.
“Officers Shreiner and Yates-Matoy had no valid legal basis to extend the traffic stop” beyond the matter of the window tint, administer sobriety tests, and arrest Manis, the complaint says.
The lawsuit says that violating civil rights is a problem across the agency — and that officers know about it.
“On information and belief, the Tennessee Highway Patrol in the Knoxville area, which encompasses Monroe County, has a custom and culture of violating the constitutional rights of others,” the complaint says. “Though not a written policy, this custom was so widespread as to have the force of law.”
As a result, the lawsuit alleges, it is “the custom and culture” of THP officers in the Knoxville area to “protect its officers” when civil rights violations have occurred.
Manis’ claims include unlawful seizure, false arrest, illegal search, false imprisonment and assault. His complaint seeks $1 million in compensatory damages and an undetermined amount in punitive damages.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol did not immediately respond to Law&Crime’s request for comment.
Read Manis’ complaint here.
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