Tesla cameras clear Winter Springs man of fleeing police charge

The Civil Rights Lawyer posted a YouTube video titled “Tesla Saves Owner From Prison”. According to the channel’s own description, Kevin Finley had just gotten home in Winter Springs, Florida, reopened his garage door after hearing what sounded like police, and found an officer aiming a gun at him and shouting commands. He was handcuffed at gunpoint in the driveway.

FOX 35 Orlando first reported the case on September 17, 2026. A September 19 piece on Oh Dang Really and a September 21 write-up on Not a Tesla App followed the same record of how onboard Tesla cameras ended the prosecution.

FOX 35 reported that Finley had been dropping his kids off at school before the stop. He said he came upon a vehicle stopped in a median, took it for a disabled car or one making a U-turn, and drove past. He told the station he never realized police were behind him. The channel description names the officer as Winter Springs officer Erik Schwartz. Body-camera and radio audio captured the officer’s assessment: “He’s trying to take off on me.”

When Finley pulled into his garage he heard sirens, reopened the door and faced drawn guns, according to FOX 35. “One at gunpoint,” an officer directed on the body-camera recording the station cited. Finley described the scene to FOX 35: “This is like, a simple — argumentatively a traffic violation. And now I have a gun in my face and I’m arrested in my driveway and my neighbors are watching.” Another officer, still on camera, weighed the charging choice out loud: “I dunno if I’m gonna hit him with the felony side of flee and elude, or I’m going to hit him with all the traffic infractions.” The felony path was chosen. Finley faced felony fleeing and eluding plus misdemeanor reckless driving, a charge that carried up to 90 days in jail.

Finley told officers and later FOX 35 that he had never seen emergency lights or heard a siren. Tesla footage presented in Seminole County Court showed only a brief moment when the patrol car’s lights were visible before curves in the road and nearby buildings hid the unmarked vehicle, according to the FOX 35 account and the channel description. The case lasted nearly two years. “These are all very serious charges. Fleeing the police is a felony. Criminal reckless driving is a misdemeanor, but up to 90 days in jail,” Finley said. After reviewing the video, the judge acquitted him before the matter reached a jury.