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Vermont State Police
A Vermont State Trooper arrested a motorist for flipping him the bird and calling him an a**hole five years ago — but the insane encounter was all caught on video and recently uploaded to YouTube.
It all began on February 8, 2019, when state trooper Jay Riggen was driving in his patrol car and saw Gregory Bombard seemingly give him the middle finger while cruising by in another vehicle.
Pissed, Riggen pulled Bombard over on a residential street and stepped up to his driver’s side window, sparking the ensuing confrontation.
In the newly released dash cam video on YouTube, Riggen immediately accuses Bombard of flipping him off — but Bombard denies it, saying the trooper must be “sensitive.”
Riggen gets even more annoyed at the sensitivity remark, explaining that he hasn’t stopped anyone in 12 years for giving him the finger.
He also called it “unusual behavior,” suggesting that Bombard was looking to get the attention of a trooper by giving off that “negative signal.”
The two keep arguing about it with Bombard, at one point, asking what crime was committed if he had extended his middle finger. Riggen doesn’t exactly say, leading Bombard to threaten to file a complaint against him.
Riggen eventually climbs back into his patrol car and follows Bombard’s vehicle down the street, while still steaming from their squabble.
Inside the patrol car, Riggen can be heard saying Bombard called him an “a**hole” and told him “f**k you” as he walked away. The trooper then turns on his lights and sirens, announcing that he’s arresting Bombard for disorderly conduct.
The rest of the video goes down exactly as you might imagine with Bombard taken away in handcuffs and thrown in jail. But the charges were later dropped against Bombard and the case was closed.
In 2021, Bombard filed a civil suit against Riggen, claiming the trooper violated his First Amendment Rights when he was “interrogated, arrested and cited” for a crime. The lawsuit is still pending.