‘Maybe His Boys In Blue Gave Him a Solid’: Florida Deputy Continues to Work and Abuse Citizens After He Was Found Passed Out Drunk In Car with Loaded Gun By His Side
A power-tripping Florida cop who was allowed to keep his job after he was found passed out drunk in his car in 2023 revealed himself to be a lying hypocrite when he yanked a man out of his car in 2024 for not complying within seconds of demanding his driver’s license.
After all, Monroe County sheriff’s deputy Jonathon Lane presented himself as a stickler for the law during the October 2024 arrest, insisting on immediate obedience from the man by pulling him out of the truck before the man even had the chance to place the truck in park.
As a result, the truck continued rolling down the street with the man’s family inside while also towing a boat. The man had been pulled over for driving too slowly.
Lane then pulled out his Taser and told the man to “put in park now” while still pulling him out of the truck. Lane then accused the man of committing battery on a police officer, when the video shows that never happened.
The man ended up spending the night in jail on two felony charges. The man’s wife explained to the deputy that her husband had suffered a traumatic brain injury, which made it difficult for him to process information and could have been the reason he did not comply within a millisecond of the deputy barking orders.
“The problem is, when I tell somebody to give me their ID and they say no, that is refusal to identify,” Lane explained to the man’s wife.
“And then when I tell him to open the door and he says no, that is again refusing to identify himself and refusal to exit the vehicle, which is an order from a law enforcement officer.”
“Furthermore, when I reach inside the car to unlock the door and he grabs my hand, that is felony battery on law enforcement,” he continued.
“Fourth, when I do finally get the car door open and he pushes me away, that is battery on law enforcement. He cannot touch me.”
Lane’s lies are exposed in his body camera video, which shows the man never said “no” and never battered him, and was, in fact, trying to comply with the deputy’s orders when he was attacked.
“I am getting out,” the man said before realizing his truck was rolling away because it was not in park, so he pulled away from the deputy to stop the car — which is what led to the deputy pulling out his Taser.
Watch the video below, which includes the 2024 arrest as well as Lane’s own arrest from 2023.
Lane’s DUI Arrest
Lane’s hypocrisy was exposed in the video of his own arrest on April 29, 2023, when he was in violation of the law by being passed out drunk in his car at a gas station at 2 a.m. with a loaded gun in the console.
The video also shows Lane telling the arresting deputy that he also had suffered a traumatic brain injury that affects his nerves and eyesight, but Lane showed little empathy for the man he arrested after learning he also had suffered a traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injuries are also known to cause aggression, irritability, and impatience, which can lead to police abuse and unlawful arrests.
Lane’s hypocrisy was further exposed when he refused to submit to a breathalyzer, according to the police report. In Florida, this is mandatory and a lawful order punishable by the suspension of one’s driver’s license for a year.
It took several minutes for deputies to wake him up, but they were patient. However, judging by the 2024 video, we can only imagine how Lane would have reacted if he had been on duty and encountered a man passed out drunk who did not wake up within a millisecond of his arrival.
Nevertheless, online court records from Monroe County shows his case was marked “confidential” on May 4, 2023, less than a week after his arrest, preventing citizens from accessing the court files which are normally considered public record in Florida.
And a Facebook post from March 2024 — less than a year after his arrest — shows he was actively working and driving his patrol car so his license was likely never suspended.
According to Miami criminal defense attorney Jonathan Blecher, whose website explains how citizens can get their records sealed or expunged after an arrest, it does not look like that is what happened in Lane’s case.
“When someone gets a criminal record sealed or expunged, it wouldn’t even show up with this notation,” Blecher said in a telephone interview with Atlanta Black Star while reviewing Lane’s case on the Monroe County court website.
“It would just not even be there. Saying it was confidential here indicates that the record is there.”
Blecher also explained that blowing more than a .08 on a breathalyzer leads to an automatic six-month suspension of a driver’s license, and refusal to submit to a breathalyzer leads to a one-year suspension unless the person has a previous suspension for refusing, which then leads to an 18-month suspension.
He also explained that people can apply for a hardship license to drive to work, which may be the case here. However, it’s impossible to know since the records are confidential. Blecher looked up Lane’s driver’s license status on the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles website and said it was listed as valid.
However, the veteran criminal defense attorney also knows that it is possible Lane received special treatment because he is a law enforcement officer.
“Maybe his boys in blue gave him a solid and didn’t show up for that hearing,” he said. “And he got that dismissed, or maybe they didn’t turn in the paperwork.”
The man who was arrested in the 2024 video, identified only as Nolan, also appears to have had his case marked confidential, but that may be because it was clearly an unlawful arrest.
The video of the 2024 incident was obtained by the YouTube channel Arrest Cam Fish and Wildlife and was reposted by the police accountability YouTube channel The Civil Rights Lawyer.
And the body camera footage and arrest reports were obtained by Police Cam News, an organization that makes regular public records requests for these videos.