Marana Police Department is now telling KGUN9 News why they tweeted out a photo of a woman getting arrested on DUI charges on her way to her wedding .
Marana Sergeant Chriswell Scott, says the Department's purpose of tweeting out the photo was to "draw awareness to impaired driving."
MPD has since deleted the photo after users started posting comments and publicly shaming 32-year-old, Amber Young.
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Young's attorney says her client never claimed she was on her way to her wedding, nor is she even engaged.
In a statement to KGUN9, attorneys Behan Ramsell PLLC says:
The police officer who arrested Ms. Young for DUI wrongfully claimed on the Marana Police Twitter account that Amber was driving to her wedding and wearing a wedding dress at the time of her DUI arrest. Both facts are false. Ms. Young is not getting married nor is she even engaged. In fact, Amber was on her way to have lunch with a friend. Further, Amber was not wearing a wedding dress: she was wearing her sun dress.
Miss Young and her attorneys are demanding a full and complete retraction by the
Marana Police Department of the untruthful story. Further, Miss Young’s lawyers are demanding that an investigation take place to determine how the police Twitter account was accessed to fabricate the story.
“The only vow that was broken in this matter was when the police failed to ‘serve and protect’ Amber, instead providing her personal information to social media for their own malicious purposes. Ms. Young has received numerous negative messages from persons on social media as a result of the police tweet.
“The fact that the police department (who posted the original hoax) removed it as soon as the story became viral proves that they knew that the story was false” said Michelle Behan, Amber Young’s attorney. “We demand that the Marana Police Department apologize for this breach of public trust.” said Behan. “Like every person in America who is alleged to have committed a crime, Ms. Young is absolutely innocent until proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt,” said Behan. Continuing, “Unfortunately for Ms. Young, the law enforcement officers from the Marana Police Department who arrested her have made this impossible, as Ms. Young’s personal information was posted on social media prior to any information being presented in court.”
Ms. Young asks that the members of the media respect her privacy and do not continue to contact her for comment.
Sgt. Scott says they have video footage of the arrest where Young claims she was on her way to her wedding as well as giving details as to where the venue was.
Marana Police Chief Terry Rozema released the following statement:
In response to allegations from Ms. Young's attorney(s); there is absolutely no basis in fact that we fabricated the story about Ms. Young being on her way to her wedding when she was involved in a three car collision and was subsequently arrested for Driving Under the Influence. Contact with Ms. Young was captured on police body camera. The audio and video captures Ms. Young stating that she is getting married, that it is her wedding day, providing details about her wedding, and affirming she is wearing her wedding dress.
