Shaffner said she is a close friend of Smith and of his wife. She said she and the trooper share a passion for nailing drunk drivers. "I have a strong conviction for arresting them, " said Shaffner, adding that a young victim of a drunk driver once died in her arms. Patrolled same area She said Smith likes working with her because he appreciates her DUI expertise. She and Trooper Smith were part of a group of officers who patrolled the same area. Many of their joint DUI arrests occurred while their cars were parked close together on the street, she said. "We were always together, " she said. "Ninety percent of the time, we are together." Other times, Smith had Shaffner do his DUI breath-alcohol testing at the South District Substation, even though he is qualified to do his own testing. Shaffner said she helps Smith get out on the road faster by doing his paperwork. "She does a lot of my DUI tests, " Trooper Smith said in a sworn deposition in 1995. Shaffner was paid $15,300.83 in court overtime in 1995. "I'm not out just for the court overtime, " Shaffner said. "I have zero tolerance for DUIs." Shaffner's former commander, retired Miami Police Capt. Nate Harris, said he was aware that she was doing lots of testing for troopers. A 'political' issue "It's one of those political issues where you didn't want to stop them because they're assisting another agency, " Harris said. Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Ernesto Duarte said troopers are supposed to use Miami's machines to do their own testing. "We do everything by ourselves, " Duarte said. "The only thing is we have to borrow someone's facility." Yet The Herald found that Miami officers did more than 70 percent of the breath tests for the 2,000 DUI defendants that troopers brought to the south substation in the three-year study period. It makes everybody happy: The troopers get Miami officers to do their work, and Miami officers get to go to court for overtime. Shaffner and Smith didn't just split DUI tests. The Herald found cases in which Shaffner went riding with Smith on her days off. That meant she got listed as a witness in DUI arrests far outside Miami's jurisdiction, from the Lehman Causeway in North Dade to Caribbean Boulevard in South Dade. "Clearly, Shaffner stepped over the line, " Harris said. "And I certainly didn't know she was spending her days off riding with her friend." Police look into it Miami Police officials recently looked into Shaffner's string of DUIs with Smith. "You can't forbid somebody to ride with another agency, " said Maj. Bill O'Brien, head of Miami's Internal Affairs unit. Shaffner insists that what she does on her own time is her own business. "I'm not charging the city for that, " she said. But she did earn overtime when those cases went to court. Today, Miami officers are allowed to do DUI tests for another agency only if a lieutenant approves, a change implemented last spring after The Herald began its inquiry into overtime abuse. Another officer in the south substation who often appeared in DUI arrests with Shaffner and Smith was Sandra Blanco, who worked at the substation's front desk. Even though she is a desk officer whose duty is to answer phones and deal with the public, Blanco, 33, is also one of the top DUI officers in Dade County. From 1994 through 1996, she appeared in 660 DUI arrests. In most cases, Blanco does DUI tests for officers and troopers who bring their defendants into the south substation. Trooper Smith said in a 1995 deposition that he used Blanco to do his tests when he needed help with a DUI defendant who speaks only Spanish. But The Herald found that Blanco did the DUI test in 106 cases for officers and troopers who speak Spanish and are qualified to do their own testing. Officer 'did nothing' In one case The Herald found, a prosecutor wrote next to Blanco's name in the file: "did nothing." She appeared in court three times on that case and received $159.94. Lt. Carlos Alfaro, in charge of Miami Police Court Liaison at the time, said management knew of Blanco's testing and allowed her and another front-desk officer, Antonio Miranda, to do it. "That was a procedure that was condoned and implemented in the South District because they did a lot of DUIs for other agencies, " Alfaro said. "Obviously, they had the best of both worlds. They sat behind a desk, and they made a lot of overtime. I think in their cases they just took advantage of the situation presented to them." The Herald found other pairs of Miami officers and FHP troopers who appeared together in DUI arrests at the south substation. Miami Police Sgt. Ariel Rojas appeared in 36 cases with former FHP Trooper Jackie Gipson-Rojas, now his wife. In one two-day period in March 1995, Rojas, then an officer, appeared with Gipson in three separate DUI arrests. They weren't married at the time. On one of those days, Rojas, 37, a 16-year veteran, pulled off an even more remarkable feat: He appeared in three different DUI cases at once. Simultaneous cases Here's how he did it: At 1:05 a.m. on March 4, 1995, Rojas started supervising a Drug Recognition Evaluation of Miguel Bode, a drunk-driving defendant who later turned out to be alcohol- and drug-free. The DRE test is given when a breath test shows no evidence of alcohol but officers believe the defendant is impaired by drugs. Rojas worked on the DRE test from 1:05 a.m. to 2 a.m., when he completed the evaluation and signed it. He appears as a witness in two other simultaneous DUI cases in which his role was never specified. Rojas says he does not remember what he did on those two cases. But he believes he might have observed the two defendants in the DUI room while he was supervising the DRE test. "It doesn't mean when you do a test it's nonstop, " he said. He also said he might have transported the defendants to jail after their arrest. He did not get a chance to go to court and receive overtime in the two cases, because the defendants took early pleas. Thousands in overtime Rojas was paid $13,724.77 in court overtime in 1995. Alfaro said he caught Sgt. Rojas piling on to DUI cases and gave him a warning in April 1996 along with five other officers whom Rojas supervised: Luis Taborda, Luis Molina, Dawn Campbell, Alberto Garcia and Luis Brignardello. "I said, 'This is improper, this is wrong, you've got to stop this, ' " Alfaro recalled. "I didn't catch him doing anything after this." Rojas said Alfaro told him only to be sure he and his men listed their roles on the back of the arrest forms. Rojas said he wrote his own memos that reflect his desire to reduce court overtime. He said he got into an argument with a trooper trying to prevent one of his officers from doing the trooper's DUI test. "In reality, yes, there were problems, and those problems were addressed, " Rojas said.