It was July 2021, and Jesse Cunningham was traveling on vacation with his wife and daughters through Fort Collins, Colorado, when he saw a motorcycle crash on the side of the road. With his medical training and his past as a military police officer in Iraq, the man did not hesitate for a second. He got out of the car and helped stabilize one of the injured people. But when the scene was under control, a police officer approached him and, instead of thanking him, said he could smell alcohol. He suspected Cunningham had caused the accident and began investigating him for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
Cunningham, who had not had a single drop to drink, let alone consumed anything else, repeatedly asked for a breathalyzer test, convinced it would prove his innocence within minutes. The officer refused, handcuffed him, and even accused him of endangering his own daughters, who were in the car, using them as grounds to place him under suspicion of child abuse.
What had begun with Cunningham trying to help two strangers ended up affecting his entire family.
Nebraska child protective services later visited his home, interviewed his daughters, and contacted the family doctor. Cunningham also had to undergo periodic urine tests while the case remained open and lost a potential opportunity for a promotion at work.
Then, three months after the arrest, the test he had been waiting for since that night finally arrived and, as expected, the analysis conducted by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found no alcohol or drugs in his blood.
The District Attorney’s Office dropped the charges, but Cunningham did not sit idly by. He filed a federal lawsuit against the police officer and the city of Fort Collins for an unjustified detention.
Nearly five years later, in 2026, the city agreed to pay him 500.000 dollars to settle the lawsuit. The municipality clarified that the settlement was intended to avoid the costs and disruptions of continuing the legal proceedings and that the payment did not imply an admission of liability or wrongdoing.
However, for Cunningham, the incident changed his life and his family’s forever.
“It has made me extremely cautious. I shouldn’t feel uncomfortable when there are police officers nearby. Unfortunately, I do now”, he acknowledged.
A good deed tarnished by the abuse of power and ignorance of others.