Subway Store Sues Police After Employee Found Innocent Of Drugging Officer

A Layton, Utah, Subway sandwich shop has filed a lawsuit against the Layton City Police Department after police waited two months to publically refute claims that an employee had drugged an officer's beverage.

In August 2016, Layton officers accused 18-year-old Tanis Ukena of drugging an officer's lemonade with methamphetamine and the psychoactive compound in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.

The officer reported feeling impaired after consuming the beverage and had the sugary drink tested with an ion scanner test — which showed the presence of the drugs. However, the test is reportedly known for having a high false positive rate, and several subsequent tests of the lemonade, as well as of the officer's blood and urine, found no evidence of the drugs.

After two months of silence, Ukena, who had been arrested and was awaiting trial in Davis County Jail for a second-degree felony, was cleared of all charges.

According to the The Salt Lake Tribune, the lawsuit by the Subway location against police alleges that the Layton City Police Department told reporters that an officer had been drugged "before it knew whether any crime had been committed, and before it knew whether anyone had in fact been poisoned."

The franchise owners, Dallas Buttars and Kristin Myers, say that their business dropped 30 percent and that they lost around $300,000 due to the claims made by police.

"My life has been changed forever. It will never be the same," Myers told the The Associated Press. "[We're] always going to be known as the store that drugged the cop."

The officer who claimed that his drink had been laced with drugs still works for the Layton Police. Ukena is currently serving in a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utica, New York.

It is not known what caused the officer to experience the reported effects.