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An Arizona man is fighting back after being arrested for DUI despite blowing a 0.000 blood alcohol level. Retired fight fighter, Jessie Thornton  of Surprise, Ariz. says he was racially profiled last December when cops pulled him over.

The 64-year-old filed a lawsuit Monday (June 10) seeking $500,000 for emotional distress from the Surprise Police Department.

Authorities claimed they could tell Thornton was drunk just by looking at him. “I take my glasses off and he says, ‘You’ve got bloodshot eyes,'” Thornton recounted. “I said, ‘I’ve been swimming at LA Fitness,’ and he says, ‘I think you’re DUI.'”

A breathalyzer test showed no alcohol in his system, but police still ran a field sobriety test–which Thornton had trouble with due to hip and knee problems. The senior citizen was scheduled to undergo surgery two days later, cops however didn’t care.  “I couldn’t even sit on the ground like that and they knew it and I was like laying on the ground,” he said. “Then they put me in the back of an SUV, and when I asked the officer to move her seat up ’cause my hip hurt, she told me to stop whining.”

Additional testing once in custody further proved Thornton’s innocence. “I’ve been stopped 10 times in Surprise, and given four tickets, it’s amazing. It was driving while black. I just don’t want any of this to happen to somebody else.”

Photo: ABC 15