Footage from a police officers’ body camera in Windermere, Florida, shows Johnny Damon attempting to talk his way out of an arrest and his wife fighting with an officer the night he was charged with a DUI.
Damon is heard on the video telling the officer he is a “good f***ing guy” and that “Blue Lives Matter.” His wife, Michelle Mangan-Damon, is repeatedly heard telling them to look at their license plate showing the Blue Lives Matter symbol. Damon later tells the officer he’s being targeted for supporting former President Donald Trump.
Damon, the two-time World Series champion with the Boston Red Sox, is charged with driving under the influence and resisting arrest. A Windermere police officer began following Damon’s black Lincoln SUV around 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 19 and said in the report and video he was driving erratically, hit a curb and drove past a stop sign line.
Mangan-Damon was also arrested and charged with resisting an officer with violence and battery of a law enforcement officer.
Damon says he had ‘a little bit’ to drink
The video provided to WKMG News 6 Orlando begins with Damon opening the door and beginning to exit when an officer yells at him to get back in and turn the vehicle off. He asks Damon to step out of the vehicle and when his wife exits, he asks why she’s exiting.
Damon: Because we saw you following us and we were like, OK —
Officer: Yeah, it’s a traffic stop. You don’t get out of the car in a traffic stop.
Damon: What traffic stop?
Officer: Do you see the police lights?
Damon: Yeah. It just happened right here.
The officer calls for backup and asks Damon how much he’s had to drink. He said “a little bit” with his finger pinching his thumb.
The officer told him he left the lane multiple times, struck a curb on the main street and stopped past the white line at a stop signal. At this point, Mangan-Damon exits the vehicle and doesn’t listen to the officer telling her to get back in the vehicle.
Damon, wife tell officers ‘we’re Blue Lives Matter’
The video shows Mangan-Damon begin hand fighting with the officer. Damon also gets involved and the body camera comes off of the officer and falls to the ground.
Damon keeps telling the officer they were 200 yards from home and is heard telling Mangan-Damon to walk there. The officer keeps telling her to get on the ground. A second officer took her into custody, per a police report.
“I am Blue Lives Matter,” Damon is heard saying on the video.
“This is bulls***,” Mangan-Damon said. “Look at our license plate. We have Blue Lives Matter. Like, this is crazy. What’s going on right now?”
“Guys, we are all for cops,” Damon is heard saying.
Damon mentions Trump support
Both Damon and Mangan-Damon asked a variation of “what are you doing right now” multiple times. He tells the officer “we’re good people” and mentions people are “targeting me because I’m a [Donald] Trump supporter.” He is heard telling the police offer twice his wife is “crazy.”
An officer asked him if he would be willing to do field sobriety tests.
“I would be because I’m a big boy,” Damon said on the video.
Damon struggled to keep still and walk in a straight line, per the Orlando Sentinel. His blood alcohol level was measured between .294 and .300, per the police report. A resisting arrest charge was dropped against Damon, per the Sentinel, and both have bonded out of jail.
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