A Michigan town has agreed to a $320,000 settlement with a man from Japan who was wrongly accused of driving under the influence after a police officer seriously misread a breath test, court records show.
Ryohei Akima had a score of 0.02 on the test, but it was incorrectly read by the Fowlerville officer as 0.22 – nearly three times higher than Michigan’s blood alcohol limit for driving.
Caitlyn Peca, a rookie officer, radioed to a colleague, “I have no idea what I’m doing,” according to a summary of the case.
Born in Yonago, Japan, Akima was in the US on a work visa in 2020. The drunk driving charge was dropped when a blood sample showed he was not drunk.
Akima, 37, filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming Peca’s actions violated the U.S. Constitution. A settlement was reached in January, a few months after a federal appeals court said the case could move forward.
“It would be obvious to a reasonable officer that (Akima) was apparently sober,” Judge Jane Stranch said in a 3-0 ruling. “A reasonable jury could thus conclude that (the) arrest was not supported by probable cause and that Officer Peca was not entitled to qualified immunity.”
Fowlerville will pay for the lawsuit through insurance, records show.
An email seeking comment from Akima’s attorney was not immediately returned Thursday.
T. Joseph Seward, an attorney representing Peca, claimed that performance on roadside sobriety tests was sufficient to make an arrest and avoid civil liability in the lawsuit.
“We are disappointed that the courts have not seen it that way,” he said.
Peca is no longer an officer in Fowlerville.
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