KEARNEYSVILLE — A husband’s alleged joke to his wife went awry when allegations were made by a Kearneysville woman last week on social media that members of a local police force overstepped their bounds in a traffic stop involving her husband.
Lori Breeden took to Facebook on Aug. 29 alleging, “Tonight my husband was pulled over. As he pulled over, two other officers surrounded him as the first one pulled behind him. ‘Get out the car?’ they yelled at him with guns drawn on him.”
Ms. Breeden went on to comment, “Confused and scared, he did just that with his arms in the air. He was placed in handcuffs and when asked what was going on, he was told the tags on the car that is 100% legal do not belong to the car and they believe he stole the car.”
The post immediately garnered numerous shares, with commenters both supporting and berating the officers.
While Mrs. Breeden did not immediately name the department, after comments defending the officers were made by Sarah Custer, a local officer’s wife, Mrs. Breeden fired back that the officers were from Ranson.
“Sarah Custer, I’m assuming your husband is an officer in Ranson,” Breeden posted.
In addition to attacks on the officers allegedly involved in the traffic stop, other officers who commented were berated.
One poster in the thread told a state trooper, who defended his fellow officers, to “go kys” — internet slang for “go kill yourself.”
Breeden joined in cajoling other officers, saying to them, “Tell your buddies you’re taking up for to find another profession if that’s the only way they can meet their quota.”
More than 24 hours after the initial post had drawn more than 100 comments and was shared dozens of times, Breeden posted that she would be deleting her post “out of respect for my husband’s wishes and the fact that a whole department was being blasted …”
The post was removed after Breeden found out that her husband, who told her the tale, had been “joking.”
Chief Robbie Roberts acknowledged that Mrs. Breeden did come to his office and view the footage. It is unclear whether she discovered the “joke” before or after she viewed bodycam footage at Ranson Police Department.
“It was not confrontational. It was civil and I showed her the video,” Roberts said. “None of what was posted is true, except that there was a traffic stop.”
After submitting a Freedom of Information Act request to view the footage for this story, it was shown that Mr. Breeden was stopped for a broken taillight. Officer Jenkins conducted the stop, along with an unidentified officer new to the department.
The video footage showed that Officer Jenkins told Mr. Breeden why he had been stopped. He then asked Mr. Breeden for his information. Upon presentation his driver’s license, registration and insurance, Officer Jenkins asked Mr. Breeden where he resided and for how long, to which the response was “Kearneysville for three years.”
Office Jenkins advised Mr. Breeden that his license indicated he lived in Charles Town, and he needed to have that changed. In addition, the insurance document presented was out of date.
Jenkins partner ran the license and registration, coming back saying that the license plate did not match the vehicle. Upon closer inspection, Officer Jenkins advised Mr. Breeden that it appeared the car dealership had given him the wrong tag as the numbers were off by one. This realization came more than halfway through the traffic stop, during which Mr. Breeden never exited the vehicle. In addition, no weapons were ever drawn or handcuffs produced.
Communication between Mr. Breeden and Officer Jenkins was lighthearted, often with laughter. Officer Jenkins issued no tickets to Mr. Breeden, who could have been cited for multiple violations. Instead, he was told to return to the car dealership to straighten out the tag issue.
“You’re good. Be safe,” Jenkins said at the conclusion of the stop.
When contacted for this story as to what exactly happened, Mrs. Breeden responded with, “That was a joke gone horribly wrong. My husband went out late at night, got pulled over and came home to tell me that story.”
“I went into full-blown ‘protect-your-family’ mode. I felt people needed to know,” Mrs. Breeden said, defending her original post.
Mr. Breeden did not return a message when asked to comment. He did, however, add a post to the thread posted on the Jefferson County Perspective Facebook site that shared a screenshot of Mrs. Breeden’s original post.
“To whom this concern I did get pulled over and came home and told my wife that joking around like I do and it was late. I told her that and went to bed, worked the next day and was gonna tell her I was joki[ing] but when I got home she was crying saying people was calling her a liar…I said I was just joking and that’s when she took the post down.”
“He thought he was joking with his wife. Not the internet. Horrible joke. Horrible timing,” Mrs. Breeden commented for this story. “I want to acknowledge that things like this do happen, which is why I came out swinging. These things happen. Those who allow those things to happen need weeded out.”
“I told her we are a transparent police department,” Roberts commented. “We don’t hide anything. I will say I have a well-trained, professional police department that I’m proud of,” the chief continued.
Mrs. Breeden did comment for this article that she apologizes to the officers involved.
“I’m sorry your names were slandered for such a stupid reason,” she said in the interview. “That’s all I can do. My life has been turned upside down since Saturday for doing exactly what any wife would do and that’s defend her husband.”
September 12, 2020 at 11:00AM
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