Deputy drops citation after stopping woman without a right hand

A Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office deputy cited Kathleen Thomas after stopping her on North Dixie Highway in Lake Worth Beach for allegedly using a phone with her right hand, then later moved to dismiss the case after the obvious fact that Thomas does not have a right hand came into view. The episode exposed a basic failure of observation that turned a routine traffic stop into a public test of police judgment.

Court records show the citation was issued Feb. 11 at about 8:04 a.m. and charged Thomas under Florida Statute 316.305(3)(a), the state’s wireless communications devices law. The ticket listed a civil penalty of $116 for a first offense. A hearing that had been set for Tuesday was canceled after the case was dropped at the request of the same deputy who wrote the citation.

The bodycam video, which Thomas posted to TikTok, spread quickly and drew attention because it showed how a traffic enforcement decision can collapse when an officer misses a visible physical reality. The stop now stands as more than an embarrassing mistake: it raises questions about training, citation review, and whether officers are being pushed to treat routine stops as reflexive enforcement rather than careful, fact-based judgments.

Florida’s hands-free and texting-while-driving law was written with a public-safety purpose. Lawmakers say its intent is to improve roadway safety for vehicle operators, passengers, bicyclists, pedestrians and other road users. That goal depends on accurate enforcement, and incidents like this one weaken public confidence when a citation is issued on a mistaken assumption that should have been apparent at the roadside.

The case also lands in a county where the sheriff’s office has already been under intense scrutiny. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has led the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office since 2004 and is the county’s longest-serving sheriff. The agency has faced close public attention in recent years over high-profile incidents and safety controversies, making the handling of Thomas’s stop part of a broader question about accountability inside routine policing.

For Thomas, the dismissals ended the immediate legal threat. For the sheriff’s office, the larger problem remains unchanged: a citation system only works when officers observe carefully, verify before accusing, and correct mistakes before they become public evidence of sloppiness.