Lawyer says police went too far in 'wire man' arrest

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — The Stone Mountain man arrested for wearing wires and devices inside a local mall said he plans to fight his charges.

As we first told you last week, police arrested Daniel Tudela for wearing the devices which they said created a scare at the Discover Mills Mall in Lawrenceville.

On Monday, Tudela told Channel 2's Kerry Kavanaugh he first designed the so-called gadget glove for functionality. It evolved into fashion.

"It's just someone expressing their personal style and basically being criminalized for that," said attorney Regina Matthews.

Tudela declined an on-camera interview, but Matthews said police went too far when they arrested Tudela for wearing his devices at the Discover Mills mall Sept. 13.

"He never meant to give the impression that he would harm anyone. He's just a young man who likes gadgets and decides to wear them in a creative way," Matthews told Kavanaugh.

Gwinnett County police said that creativity created a scare. Concerned employees called 911 reporting a suspicious man.

"Once they determined he wasn't a threat, I think that it should have ended there," Matthews said.

Police said even though the devices are harmless, the danger is in what they could be mistaken for.

"One would put together and reasonably assume, that someone was here to commit some type of heinous crime, deadly crime," said Cpl. Ed Ritter with the Gwinnett County Police Department.

"He wouldn't wear it in public if he thought that it would cause that kind of stir," Matthews said.

Matthews said because Tudela had no intention of causing any fear or controversy she plans to ask the county solicitor to drop the hoax device charge.

She said she'll present a letter of support signed by several of his coworkers.

http://bcove.me/nntsuahs

WSBTV