On February 11, 2026, Kathleen Thomas was pulled over in Lake Worth, Florida by a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy. She was then issued a citation for using her cell phone with her right hand, breaking Florida’s distracted driving law. There was a big problem though. Thomas doesn’t have a right hand.
Thomas, who goes by Katie, is a fitness influencer that doesn’t have a right arm below her elbow. She recorded the interaction between herself and the deputy on her phone after she was issued a citation. Thomas wisely had the officer repeat that he said that her nonexistent right hand had a phone in it. Then she shared that video on her social media, garnering a lot of attention. Unsurprisingly, Thomas decided to fight the ticket in court.
Handy body cam footage
On May 26, 2026, the day before Thomas’ court date, she shared the body cam footage of her the citation. In the footage, we hear the deputy explain to Thomas that she was being pulled over for manipulating her phone with her right hand. Thomas responded by holding up her partially missing arm.
“So, obviously not,” Thomas laughed in the footage. “So, do you wanna just call this a day or…?”
In spite of either misspeaking or being mistaken, the deputy still issued the ticket, even asking Thomas “hand to God” whether or not she did it. Many commenters were flummoxed as to why the deputy just didn’t let Thomas go given that his assessment of the situation couldn’t have been true.
‘Lack of evidence’
On May 27, 2026, Thomas posted a video saying that the citation had been dismissed before she even went to court. She went to the courthouse anyway to get the dismissal on paper.
“I can’t make up the reason why it was dismissed,” Thomas said in the video with a sigh and a smile. “It says ‘lack of evidence.’”
Needless to Thomas took this entirely frustrating situation with humor and her story has gotten a lot of attention in the media.
It was later reported that the deputy himself that had requested dismissal of the ticket days before the court hearing.
Is it legal to use your cell phone while driving?
While this was a unique circumstance, distracted driving is not. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, distracted driving caused the deaths of 3,208 people in 2024. Sadly, the majority of these deaths are easily avoidable, with people keeping their attention on the road rather than conversations with other passengers, eating, and using cell phones.
However, that doesn’t mean you cannot use your cell phone while driving. The laws regarding cell phone use while driving vary from state to state.
In Florida, where Thomas’ run-in with the law took place, distracted driving is illegal but enforced after a traffic violation or accident. Regarding cell phones specifically, officers can only pull you over for texting while driving. You’re allowed to use GPS, talk on speakerphone, and use it hands-free provided that it doesn’t cause an accident or violation.
“The statute’s actually really explicit,” traffic attorney Michael Donahue said to KATV News. “It says you have to be engaged in manually typing letters or numbers into the device.”
Regardless of what the law says in your state, it’s good advice to not touch your phone at all while driving.
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