Sandy MaloneWichita Falls, TX – A former Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) trooper was caught on his own vehicle’s camera vaping from a THC pen he’d confiscated from a driver during a traffic stop (video below).
The incident occurred in 2019 but only became public after an attorney representing multiple drivers who had been stopped by former Texas DPS Trooper Chad Harden obtained the video and other materials through a public records request, KFDX reported.
The video showed then-Trooper Harden stopping a driver on a Highway 287 in Wichita County.
The trooper interviewed the driver inside his own patrol vehicle and the driver admitted he had previously been arrested for possession of marijuana, the video showed.
Ultimately, the driver admitted that he had THC vape pen cartridges in his possession and turned them over to Trooper Harden.
The driver was released but the video inside the patrol unit continued rolling and showed that less than five minutes after Trooper Harden released the driver, he picked up the vape pen and put it in his mouth.
The video showed that Trooper Harden pulled over to the side of the road about 25 minutes later and took a big draw on the vape pen, which caused him to cough.
After he was busted for using the vape pen, Trooper Harden told investigators it was all a mistake, the New York Post reported.
“I accidentally inhaled THC, as stupidly as that sounds,’’ he told an investigating officer in the video.
“I felt it fill up my lungs. I pushed it out as fast as I could,’’ the now-former trooper claimed. “I did not mean to inhale it.’’
He was later suspended in 2019 after the Texas Rangers launched an investigation in connection with his activities, the New York Post related.
It wasn’t known whether the vaping incident captured in the video was part of that investigation.
The former DPS trooper was charged with tampering with evidence and cut a plea deal with prosecutors that landed him just two years’ probation, the New York Post reported.
Fort Worth attorney David Sloane, who is representing several drivers who were stopped by then-Trooper Harden, released the vaping video as part of a number of ongoing cases.
“The public should find it abhorrent any time there’s a breach of public trust,” Sloane said. “We place people in a position of trust when they enforce the law.’’
He said the charges against his other clients who were cited for marijuana by Trooper Harden have since been dismissed, but none of them were the man featured in the vaping video.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below:
Holly Matkin