Florida driver born without right hand gets texting ticket dismissed

A Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy issued a $116 texting ticket to Kathleen Thomas, a Lake Worth Beach woman who says she was born without a right hand, then watched the citation collapse under scrutiny weeks later. Court records show the case was dismissed on Tuesday, May 27, 2026, at the sheriff’s office’s request for “insufficient evidence.”

The traffic stop happened on February 11, 2026, along North Dixie Highway in Palm Beach County. Body-camera video obtained by ABC News and other outlets shows the deputy telling Thomas he saw her “holding the phone with your right hand, manipulating that phone,” before Thomas raised her arm and demonstrated that she does not have a right hand. The incident drew immediate attention because the deputy reportedly continued to press the issue even after Thomas showed him her missing hand.

The citation, issued around 8:04 a.m., was labeled “Wireless Comm. Device/Handheld While Driving - First Offense” under Florida Statute 316.305(3)(a), according to court records cited in local reporting. Thomas posted the encounter to TikTok under the handle @slightlyoff.balance, where the video spread widely and put the stop at the center of a larger conversation about how officers interpret what they think they see on the roadside.

Thomas said the encounter made her feel uncomfortable and that she hoped the video would become a teachable moment about limb difference and the assumptions police can make in real time. CBS News reported her saying, “I felt very uncomfortable.” Other reporting noted the deputy appeared to persist even after Thomas demonstrated that she had no right hand, turning the stop into an example of how a basic visual mistake can snowball into a citation.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office later said the deputy acted on real-time visual observation. After further review of the Florida statutes involved and the “totality of the circumstances,” the office asked for the dismissal, and Palm Beach County court accepted it. Reporting also pointed to possible confusion between Florida Statutes 316.305 and 316.306, raising questions about how citation software labels offenses and how much review happens after an officer leaves the scene.

The case is now less about an isolated mistake than about accountability in routine traffic enforcement. When an obvious error can become a formal charge, the burden shifts to the citizen to prove the state wrong. That leaves open the harder question for law enforcement: what safeguards exist to catch apparent contradictions before a driver is forced to fight a citation that should never have been issued.