Bodycam video shows the DUI arrest of a Miami man who said he was a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent when he was stopped with two kids in his car in the Florida Keys.
In the footage from the August arrest, Scott Thomas Deiseroth can be heard using profanity as he’s approached by deputies with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, failing a sobriety test, and questioning a deputy about his nationality.
Authorities said they received a call of a vehicle driving recklessly near Mile Marker 40 shortly before 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 13.
When deputies responded, they saw the vehicle driving into oncoming traffic and “swerving heavily,” officials said.
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office
Scott Thomas Deiseroth
The vehicle was stopped and deputies found two children, ages 7 and 9, inside.
Deiseroth, who identified himself as an ICE agent, had a strong odor of alcohol on him, misidentified his location and gave an erroneous direction of travel, authorities said.
In the video, a deputy asks Deiseroth about where he’s going, and where he is. He describes the route, but does not provide an exact location.
Then, he asks: “Who’s the guy in the white shirt?”
When he’s told it’s the colonel, he responds, “Colonel don’t mean s— to me. I’m federal. I’m trying to get home. I got my boys with me.”
When the deputy asks for Department of Homeland Security identification or credentials, he says he doesn’t have them on him.
Later, the footage shows Deiseroth out of his car and leaning on his truck bed as deputies attempt to perform a field sobriety test.
“Just give me a minute, alright, guys,” he says, and appears upset.
“Like I said, I just don’t like us standing here in the road,” a deputy tells him.
“I don’t either, but you know what, my kids are my life,” Deiseroth replies. “You don’t know what it’s like.”
Another deputy encourages him to do the exercise so they can move off the road, and Deiseroth asks: “Are you Haitian?”
“That’s nothing to do with my race buddy,” the deputy replies.
“My question was, are you Haitian,” Deiseroth continues.
When the other deputy says “it doesn’t matter where he’s from,” Deiseroth insists, “it does.”
The bodycam video also shows Deiseroth wobbling while trying to walk in a straight line, before authorities handcuff him and attempt to get him into the patrol car while he curses.
At one point, they ask him to stand up and put his feet in and he firmly says, “No.”
Later, he asks for his children.
“You’re going to jail for DUI, which is a misdemeanor. If you don’t cooperate, you go to jail for resisting. You don’t want to make it worse. Your kids will be fine,” the colonel says.
“Listen to me,” Deiseroth says.
“No sir, not on the side of the road,” the colonel replies.
“God d— you guys,” Deiseroth replies. “F— you.”
With Deiseroth detained, the colonel tells deputies what he saw.
“He is literally in the middle of the road,” he says. “He’s in the middle, southbound, northbound lane in the two-lane area… He is all over the road, taking all lanes, taking all shoulders, obviously not paying attention. You got people waving me by, yielding over, and I don’t even have lights on at this point.”
When he did activate his lights, the colonel says he followed Deiseroth more than 200 yards before he stopped.
“And obviously when I went up to the car, you smell the odor,” he tells the deputies.
The children were turned over to their mother, and the Florida Department of Children and Families was notified.
ICE in August released a statement that reads: “As the matter is currently under investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment on the arrest. However, as public servants working for a law enforcement agency, every employee at ICE is held to the highest standard of conduct. Should an investigation determine they have not adhered to those standards it will be addressed appropriately.”
The Department of Homeland Security later said he would go through a rehabilitation program for alcohol, but it was not immediately clear if he was back to work.