Windermere (Fla.) police body-worn camera footage showed an allegedly intoxicated Johnny Damon, the former Major League Baseball player and two-time World Series champion, try to talk his way out of being arrested, saying he was a “good guy” and that “Blue Lives Matter.”
Damon also said he was “200 yards from home” and could get there safely, according to the video released by Windermere police Tuesday of the Feb. 19 arrest.
A Windermere police officer began following Damon, who was driving a black Lincoln SUV erratically, hitting a curb and driving past a stop sign around 1:30 a.m., according to police.
Damon stopped the car in front of the guard stand entrance to his neighborhood. When the officer got out and walked toward the SUV, Damon started to get out but the officer ordered Damon to stay inside, the video showed. Damon’s wife, Michelle Mangan-Damon, who was in the passenger seat, also got out of the SUV and initially ignored commands to get back inside, before eventually retreating, according to the video.
The officer eventually had Damon get out and stand at the back of the SUV, where he asked Damon why he and his wife were getting out of a car during a traffic stop.
“What traffic stop?” Damon asked.
“Do you see the police lights,” the officer responded.
The officer then asked how much Damon had to drink.
“Oh, a little bit,” Damon said, making a pinching gesture with his finger and thumb.
Mangan-Damon got out of the SUV again and tried to walk toward her husband. The officer then started to handcuff her, according to the video.
“Don’t touch me,” she said. “Don’t [expletive] touch me.”
A scuffle between her, Damon and the officer ensued, knocking his body camera to the ground.
Damon, who tried to calm his wife down, later called her “crazy” and said she liked to fight, the video showed.
He agreed to do a field sobriety test, saying in the video, “I’m a big boy.”
During the tests, Damon struggled to keep his head still while following a light, struggled to walk in a straight line and could not stand on one foot while counting, the video showed.
“I’m good, bro,” he said during the test.
His arrest report said he had bloodshot eyes and “extremely slurred” speech. His blood-alcohol level was later measured between .294 and .300, the report said — nearly four times the state’s legal limit for driving.
Damon and his wife were handcuffed and taken to the Orange County Jail. He was arrested on a resisting arrest without violence charge and driving under the influence. The resisting charge against Damon was dropped, court records show. His attorney, Stuart Hyman, declined comment.
Mangan-Damon is facing charges of battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting officer with violence.
Both have since bonded out of jail.
