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Typically, a driving under the influence charge is pretty cut and dry. A police officer pulls a motorist over, tests them, and, with clear evidence of the crime in hand, arrests them for a DUI. However, every once in a while, a DUI case resides in more of a gray area. Like the DUI arrest of a former basketball star in Louisville, even though he blew under the legal limit. 

A Louisville, KY, basketball star ended up in handcuffs for a DUI after he blew under the legal limit and passed a sobriety test

Russ Smith is many things. He was a legend for the Louisville Cardinals. And if you know anything about the Cardinals, it’s almost a religion in Louisville, Kentucky. He’s also a basketball star for Pallacanestro Nardò, a team in one of the Italian leagues. Now, however, Smith is in the headlines for a DUI. But this wasn’t a case where a celebrity registered at twice or three times the legal limit after fumbling through a sobriety test or breathalyzer.

Smith was out driving his seven-year-old Maserati when police stopped him. Louisville Metro Police say they saw Smith perform an illegal U-turn near Highland Avenue just a few blocks from boxing great Muhammad Ali’s grave. Upon stopping the basketball star, the arresting officer had Smith perform a standard field sobriety test. Although Smith passed “other parts” of the test, he failed the “walk-and-turn” portion, per WDRB News.

Police tested Smith to get a reading on his blood alcohol concentration (BAC). The result? He had a 0.06 BAC. That’s less than the state’s allowable 0.08. But Kentucky doesn’t care about that number; the state’s laws say officers can still arrest a motorist for a BAC over 0.04. So, arresting a person who empirically registers below the legal limit is up to the officer on the scene.

Smith’s attorney tells a different story

The basketball star’s attorney, Steve Romines, says that Smith was innocent from the start, including the claim that he performed an illegal U-turn. “There was either an accident or [an] arrest on Bardstown Road, almost directly in front of where he’s at, and he turned left into the parking lot,” the attorney said.

“So, there’s police lights, ambulances, and sirens. So he turns left into a parking lot to not pull up into an accident scene or crime scene or whatever, and they claim it’s a U-turn,” Romines said. “The surveillance footage shows it’s not. He’s turning left into a parking lot.” 

Troublingly, Romines added that the system in Kentucky makes it much too simple to arrest a motorist. “Field sobriety tests are designed for people to fail them,” he said. “They are not a scientific test. They are created so [that] it permits police to arrest.”