Welcome back to the DUI Channel. We are in Orlando, Florida, where on January 6th, 2020 at 12:56 p.m., Belle Isle police observed a Ford SUV passing vehicles in a no passing zone near the intersection of South Conway Road on Hoffner Ave. As the vehicle turned onto South Conway Road, the vehicle occupied two lanes of traffic to the point where another vehicle had to take immediate action to avoid an accident. The officer then activated his emergency lights and pulled the vehicle over in an elementary school parking lot as his investigation begins. All right, can I have your license, registration, and insurance? Sure. What would you like to tell me? I worked last night. Okay. 10-70. County BP 181, 10-7. I'll be putting in engine. 348, 10-4. Ma'am, have you been drinking today? No, I'm sorry. Huh? I said no. Well, why are you so sluggish and you're not able to get any of the documentation that I'm asking you for? I'm sorry. I worked four shifts in a row. Okay, so you're extremely tired. Yes. You're not even able to produce your license, registration, or insurance that I've requested. No, wait. Did you just remember where it was? Yes, I'm sorry. Have you taken any medications or anything? Cuz right now you're appearing uh a little disoriented. What's that? Okay. And I asked you for your license, registration, and insurance. You gave me your license, your bank card, and your work ID. If you can't even be coherent enough to give me the proper information, you think you're okay to drive? You drove on the wrong side of the road coming up on the oncoming traffic. You almost hit another vehicle. When I followed you around the light, you're swerving from halfway across this lane all the way to the curb. Please give me your registration, ma'am. No, your registration is not here, ma'am. Please take your bank card back. Okay. Yes, ma'am, I am. I'm sorry. I It's in my car somewhere. I'm sorry. I don't know where it's at. All right. Go and shut your vehicle off for me. Stay in the vehicle. Do not exit. Be right back with you. I'm okay. Ma'am, why don't you step out and talk to me for a minute? I don't see the battery in here. Go ahead and walk over to the front of my vehicle. What's going on? Keep your hands out of your pocket for me. I don't know what you got there. What's going on today? 924 in the street. I was literally pulled over 50 54 out of Okay. I went out to breakfast. I had a drink at my friend's. That's what happened. I had one drink. That's it. You only had one drink? That's one drink. I'll tell you I will I will I will I What medication did you tell me you were on? I'm on Ambien. I'm on Lexapro. Ambien, are you allowed to drink on Ambien? No, but I take it when I go to bed. I'm home. That's So, you're extremely tired taking Ambien with alcohol in your system. No, I haven't taken any Ambien today. Oh, you haven't? I thought you just told me you took an Ambien. I asked you what medications you're on. You said you took Ambien. That's what Well, I don't believe you're okay to drive. All right. Would you be willing to participate in a field sobriety exercise to determine if you're able to drive? Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. Fair enough. Thank you. Huh? Yeah. You never what? I've never been anything like this. You've never been anything like this? I have been through anything like this. Do you have any medical conditions with your legs, arms, anything that would exclude you from being able to do a couple simple exercises? Do you have any issues with your eyes? No. I wear contacts. Okay. All right. You wear contacts? Glaucoma? Do you have diabetes? Any sugar issues? No. All right, nothing. All right. All right, let's go over here to the shaded area. All right, that's good. All right. Do me a favor, ma'am. What was your last name? What was it? Okay, miss Can I have you step on this line? Just go ahead and put both feet together. Arms down by your side. All right, put your heels and toes together. Hands All right. Look at my feet. My heels and toes are together. There you go. Hands down by your side. Maintain this throughout this exercise, okay? Okay. All right. I'm going to conduct HGN. All right, what I need you to do is follow this with your eyes Okay. and your eyes only. Do not move your head, okay? Do you understand? Yes. All right. I want you to focus on the tip of the stimulus, which is my pen, right here. All right? That was good. Relax. All right. Next exercise I'm going to ask you to do is walk and turn. All right? We're going to utilize this line. All right? What I need you to do is place your left foot on the line. And your right foot directly in front of it, like so. Hands down by your side, okay? Oh. I need you to stay put. All right? You know what? We're not going to have enough room here. Yeah, I was trying to stay out of the sun. But Yeah, let's go use this line here. It'll be a little better for you, a flatter surface, and we'll stay in the shade cuz you're not going to have enough room to do this exercise there. If you would go stand in front of this officer's vehicle. No, this yellow line. We'll use this yellow line. I want to stand here on this yellow line with your left foot on the line? Right foot in front? Okay. All right. All right, hold on now. Hold on, we haven't started yet. All right, we haven't started just yet. That is You know what? Just watch her. I got to take that line That line's huge. Can you step on that for me? All right. That'll be the line we'll use. All right, go ahead and put your left foot on that line at the front. Right foot in front. Keep your hands down by your side, maintain this position throughout the instruction. Corporal. All right, did you understand that? Yeah, you said put my left foot in front of I don't Do you want me to walk in a way? No, ma'am. I'd like you to put your left foot on the line, place your right foot in front of your left foot. Hands down by your side and maintain this position while I explain the instructions. All right? When I ask you to do so I'm going to ask you to take nine heel-to-toe steps. I'm going to demonstrate before you start. All right? Nine. You understand the instructions. All right, you may begin. Continue the exercise, ma'am. Okay. All right. I guess I'm going to have you stop there. All right, let's go back to the other end. No, let let's just walk back over here. We're going to continue to the next exercise. Okay. All right. Once again, put your feet together, hands down by your side. All right. This is the one-leg stand. When I ask you to do so, raise either leg, whichever Sorry, raise either foot, whichever foot you decide to use, approximately 6 in off the ground. All right, and you're going to point your toe to the sky, and you're going to look down at your toe, and you're going to count out loud, 1 1,000, 2 1,000, 3 1,000, and so on. All right, it's it's 6 seconds. No, ma'am. It'll look like this. All right, 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, and so on. If you place your foot down, pick it back up, and begin counting where you started, where you left off. I miss anything, officer? All right. Go ahead and place your heels and toes together, and you may begin. Go to go to go. Okay. Miss anything, sir? Yeah. Yeah. Not sure. Come back over here to my car and talk to corporate. All right, this is good right here. Ma'am. That's good. Do me a favor. Turn around. Put your hands on your back. All right, at this time you're being placed under arrest for driving under the influence. All right, come with me. Do you have anything in No, sir. Do you have anything in your pockets? Any weapons? Huh? Okay. All right. Yes, ma'am. You can tell me whatever you like. 52 hours in 4 days. I understand. I'm tired. I get it. I smell a strong odor of alcohol coming from your breath. You did poorly on the exercises. Okay. Okay. You could not maintain a single lane. Okay. You're passing vehicles, endangering the public. Okay. All right? Yes. Yes. Let's go get some shade. I didn't put any marks on it, brother. Oh. All right. Let's go get in shade. I've got to wait for a female officer to search you before I can place you in my car. If you'd like to lean against your vehicle, you're more than welcome to. feel so stupid. I'm a nurse. I understand that, ma'am. I don't think you do. I've worked at least 52 something hours this week. I understand I do the same thing. I work 12 hour shifts too. 12-15 hour shifts. Every other weekend I work a Friday, Saturday, Sunday it's 40 something to 50 hours a weekend. But what I don't do is go out drinking before I go home when I've had no sleep. I don't mind if you can if she can get somebody here. I mean do you have someone here that can pick up your vehicle so I don't have to tow your vehicle also? Okay. Tow the vehicle. My family's in Ohio. I'm here down here from Ohio by myself. Okay. Am I going to be in jail? What time? Am I going to have to go sit in jail for myself? At least 8 hours. They mandate 8 hours for anyone that's brought in for DUI. All right, it is a misdemeanor charge. It's not a felony charge. Okay. I don't I'm not sure how many drinks you had today but Two. Well, it started out as one and now it's two. It's I'm not a bad person. I believe you. I see you nurse. I understand that. And this is what I'm getting. You can't be out here endangering public that we swear to serve and protect you and me both. You almost hit two vehicles coming around that light. You were in both lanes. You were running vehicles off the side of the road. I seen you stuffing food in your mouth trying to eat. You're going back and I'm hungry. I haven't ate since last Ma'am, if If if you had time to drink, you had time to eat. I'm sorry. You're literally pushing people off the road coming through that left-hand turn at Conway and Oakdale. Did you not even notice you were doing that? I was right behind you. I was really nervous that you were going to hurt someone. What time did you get off this morning? After 8. Where'd you go drink that early? No, I went to have a dinner with my friends. All right. And then we had two drinks. It's by Banbury's. I I've only been here down here since April, a year, barely. And I'm You drinking something like fruity or something? No. You said it was Tito's and something. Tito's and Sprite. Right. That's all And Sprite. It's all I ever drink. Cuz I know myself. And you didn't take any of your medications today that make you extra drowsy? Well, I take my antidepressant every day. Okay. When's the last time you took that? Every day. I take it every day before I go into work. When did you think you took it? At work last night. Well, I don't know how long your shift is, ma'am. That's why I'm trying to find out. 13 hours. So, that makes it at 6:00 yesterday evening. 8:00 p.m. So, that'd be a 12-hour shift if you got off at 12. Okay. Are you supposed to drink on that medication? No. Does it affect you if you drink on that medication? It does. with my best friend from middle school. Because I was sober on New Year's and I ate gluten and alcohol. This is my first time off since New Year's and I after 4 days in a row, I was like, I'll have a drink. I just literally clocked out for I think 53 54 hours this week. You were clocked out for 53 54 hours? I'm supposed to be off in 2 days. And this is my friend saying, Why don't you come out for breakfast? Why don't you come out for a drink? I did. This is what rained it up. So, can you tell me where I go from here? Do I go to court? Do I From here we're going to wait for a female officer to pat you down to make sure you don't have any weapons or anything on you. That's mandated before I put you in the back of my car. And then we're going to go down to the DUI center. It'll give you an opportunity to blow in a breathalyzer to if see if you're over the point 08 or not to see what your blood alcohol actually is. If you're willing to do so. Call my doctor real quick. Ooh. All right, so here's the deal with the car. While waiting for a female officer to arrive on scene to search the suspect, a Belle Isle sergeant spoke to the arresting officer in regards to whether the suspect was coherent enough to consent to an officer driving her vehicle to a parking spot instead of being towed. Yes, sir. We can't confirm that she's not coherent enough to not understand this waiver we're having her sign. What, for the vehicle? Yeah. Mhm, I don't I don't know. I don't know if I can make that call. You can talk to her and see what you think. I She's taking medications and she's been drinking this morning. She said she's worked 50-something hours this weekend. She used the turning lane, passed all lanes, actually went out into traffic on on Hoffner. When she turned the corner here, when I was behind her, took both lanes, pushed vehicles off the road, came back over, came within inches of the curb. Huh? My nose? Barbecue? We just had lunch. You got it on your nose. I don't know. Well, my only concern is if she is signal one or whatever the sign of waiver of rights is. Well, she said she has nobody to come get the vehicle. I understand. I don't That's if she doesn't have any How's she going to I don't know. Do you understand my question? I do. I understand, but I don't feel comfortable making that You are making that decision or I am or whatever the sign is. DUI arrest. Mhm. I know. That's all. Look, I didn't want to make the call to leave the doggone thing here to begin with. I asked him to do a tow sheet. He said if He asked me if I was all right to get someone here to get the vehicle. I said, "Yeah." Then she said she had nobody. I said, "Well, let's go ahead and tow it." I have no idea where the whole school thing came up with. I guess he seen those ladies. He must have asked them. I guess I didn't initiate any of this. That's why I'm like, "I don't want to make that call." I wanted to tow the doggone vehicle to begin with. But I mean, I do believe she's coherent enough to make the decision. I just hate to be the one making that call, you know? But she's had enough to drink that she couldn't even produce a registration. She's given me her bank card and she's given me her business ID. So, if she can't even determine which document she's giving me, I don't know if she has a license. Um do you want to see her sign it when you get to the jail? So, we don't have to take her cuffs off or anything. She signs right there. All right. Put her name and date. We'll see. I guess he's looking up a policy. I would have towed the vehicle, buddy. I've done it several times now. I don't like leaving it and taking the liability of it. I'll take liability. I don't mind someone coming to pick it up, but I don't like to leave it like that. call. It's your call. Eventually, the Belle Isle Chief of Police arrived on scene to search the suspect as she was the only female law enforcement official on duty at the time. She's good, Chief? Yes, sir. I need a female She's good. All right. Step this way. I'm going to get in the rear of this vehicle. Here's for her copy and for her records. Thank you. the address is right there. Appreciate it. Uh then The tow sheet is for the driver. I don't got to email it to No, if you give them a copy and let them sign it and you take it and then give them another copy. So, print off two more. Give one to them, have them sign one and get that back. We'll put it in the uh I'll put this as her copy. The one you get signed will go in my packet. Sounds good. Thank you, sir. Following the arrest, the suspect, Laura, was transported to the Orange County Sheriff's Office DUI Testing Center, whereupon she submitted two chemical breath alcohol samples. The lower of the two samples read 0.131% breath alcohol content. In court, she was charged with disobey no passing zone sign and driving under the influence or DUI. On June 10th, 2020, the defendant entered into a pre-trial diversion contract and on June 9th, 2021, 1 year, 5 months and 3 days after the arrest, the charge was disposed as nolle prosequi. This means that the prosecution chose to no longer pursue the case. Between the two charges, Laura was ordered to pay a total of $334. This amount has been paid in full. She was further sentenced to 10 days of vehicle mobilization, 50 hours of alternative community service, refrain from violating any laws associated with law-abiding persons only, maintain employment, participate in drug alcohol counseling, participate in a mental health evaluation, attend DUI level one school, attend a victim impact panel, and make a $500 donation to a non-profit agency approved by the office of the state attorney. The defendant was not sentenced to any time in jail. They drink.