A former Vero Beach police officer who resigned in June – days before he was arrested for illegally disposing of a felony-level amount of marijuana seized during an early-morning traffic stop – voluntarily forfeited his state-issued criminal justice certification last week.
As part of a plea deal, Christian Butterfield, who was hired by the Vero Beach Police Department in October 2023, may no longer work as a law enforcement officer in Florida.
In exchange, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a felony tampering-with-evidence charge and transfer the case to Indian River County Veterans Treatment Court, where the 32-year-old former U.S. Marine pled no-contest to a misdemeanor marijuana-possession offense and agreed to enter a diversion program.
If Butterfield successfully completes the program, which includes random drug testing and weekly check-ins with a Veterans Justice Outreach specialist, the charge will be dismissed.
“The biggest thing I was concerned about was not allowing him to be a police officer anymore,” Assistant State Attorney Bill Long said in a phone interview last weekend. “I knew that’s what the police department wanted, too.”
Vero Beach Police Chief David Currey confirmed that he urged prosecutors to require Butterfield to relinquish his law-enforcement certification as part of any plea bargain.
“The state knew from the get-go how I felt about the certificate,” Currey said last week, adding that he has “no regrets” over his handling of Butterfield’s misconduct during – and immediately following – the marijuana-related traffic stop at 1 a.m. June 1 on the 2200 block of 16th Avenue.
Local criminal defense attorney Andy Metcalf, who represented Butterfield, said his client declined a request from Vero Beach 32963 to discuss the resolution of his case.
Metcalf, however, strongly disagreed with Currey’s decision to pursue a felony charge against Butterfield and effectively end the law-enforcement career of a rookie officer only months out of the police academy.
“Christian made a bad decision, but this was an opportunity to further educate and train a young officer who I believe would’ve gone on to have a great career,” Metcalf said. “Instead, this case got a lot of media attention, and the chief made an example of him.”
Metcalf cited Butterfield’s military service and previous work as a corrections officer and firefighter, adding, “To me, this doesn’t seem to be the type of thing you should lose your career for, especially for a first offense.”
The criminal case against Butterfield stemmed from a 45-minute traffic stop during which he detained and handcuffed a 19-year-old driver and his 17-year-old passenger. His search of the car found more than 25 grams of marijuana and a THC-loaded vape pen.
Under Florida law, possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The same penalty applies to possession of any amount of THC oil, which is often used in vape pens.
Butterfield confiscated the marijuana and vape pen he found, but he opted to not arrest the suspects – because, he would later say, he wanted to show compassion for the teen suspects.
That was his first mistake.
By not making an arrest, Butterfield violated one of the department’s General Orders, which prohibit officers from exercising discretion when crimes rise above a misdemeanor.
His second and more consequential mistake was choosing to dispose of the confiscated marijuana and vape pen by tossing them into a dumpster in the police station’s parking lot – an act both Currey and prosecutors agreed rose to the level of an evidence-tampering charge.
In fact, Butterfield essentially admitted he violated a General Order and tampered with evidence when he published his intentions on a GoFundMe page he created to raise money to help cover his legal expenses, after he was arrested and posted a $10,000 bond on June 19.
Butterfield wrote that he “decided to not arrest the young men because the possession would be a felony and severely impact the rest of their lives,” later adding that he “disposed of the marijuana by throwing it away in the VBPD dumpster” in an “attempt to be an empathetic officer.”
News of Butterfield’s arrest last summer generated a groundswell of support from sympathetic local residents who took to social media to share their feelings, embracing his professed benevolent reasons and noting that the crime involved marijuana – a substance legal in many states but not in Florida.
Many of those who commented on Facebook expressed outrage over Butterfield’s arrest and wrote that he should be praised, not punished, for the “compassion” he showed in deciding to not “ruin the lives” of the young driver and his passenger with felony charges.
Responding to the sentiment expressed by some in the community, Currey said at the time: “I understand there are people who think he shouldn’t have been arrested, but we arrest civilians for the same crime. I don’t think people want us to treat police officers differently, just because they’re police officers.”
Currey explained that Butterfield could have worked with his supervisors and state prosecutors to help the suspects after making the initial arrest and turning in the evidence as required.
If had Butterfield turned in the evidence he confiscated without making an arrest, he might have faced disciplinary action, but he would not have been charged with a crime – and he probably would have kept his job.
Instead, Butterfield didn’t file a report, didn’t turn in evidence and, after dumping the marijuana and vape pen, pretended the traffic stop never happened.
Currey said Butterfield, upon returning to the station at the end of his shift, made no effort to discuss the events of the stop with his sergeant, nor did he initiate any such conversation when he showed up for work the next two nights.
“He was probably hoping no one would look at the (body-cam) video,” Currey said.
Butterfield’s shift supervisor was a sergeant who, according to the initial arrest affidavit, was the first to notice that the now-former officer was making traffic stops and claiming to have issued written warnings, but wasn’t filing the required reports.
Currey said he believes Butterfield’s aversion to paperwork – not compassion – was the deciding factor in choosing to not arrest the driver, who admitted the marijuana was his and said he used it regularly to treat behavioral disorders.
It was missing paperwork that prompted members of Currey’s command staff to review Butterfield’s body-camera footage from the wee-hour traffic stop in question.
And it was the findings of that review that convinced the chief to conduct the internal investigation that ultimately led to the officer’s arrest.
“I’ve been practicing law in this community for 30 years, and I can tell you law enforcement officers use arrest discretion all the time,” Metcalf said after taking the case. “I know officers, in every agency I’ve worked with, that have used that kind of discretion and chose to not make arrests, even with felony offenses.
“In this case, we have a police officer who used his discretion – who decided to let a young man go, rather than ruin his life over marijuana,” he added. “And you arrest him? You charge him with a felony? That’s absurd.”
Metcalf’s position hasn’t changed, but he took some solace in getting the felony charge reduced, Butterfield being offered a diversion program and his client having an opportunity to move on with his life with no criminal record.
Although Butterfield cannot work in law enforcement, he hopes to return to continue his career in emergency services as a firefighter or fire medic, Metcalf said.
“He still wants to serve his community,” the attorney added. “That’s a big deal to him.”
Currey said he respects the judicial process, “but I stand on the actions we took, from start to finish.”
As for Long, he said the plea agreement resulted in a “fair resolution” of the case, adding, “Once he signed the affidavit relinquishing his certification, we treated him the same as we would other first-time offenders.”
