Clearwater police arrested Nicole Scholl of Palm Harbor early yesterday morning in relation to a single car accident which killed a Clearwater man. Scholl was charged with DUI manslaughter.

Law enforcement alleges that Scholl was intoxicated when she lost control of her 1996 Plymouth van at 1:50 a.m. on a frontage road just off the southbound lanes of U.S. 19. Her passenger, Anthony Campaign was hanging out the window at the time because he was ill. Campaign was killed instantly after he hit a utility pole and was thrown from the van, according to police. (more…)

Miami Beach police arrested Miami Dolphins cornerback Will Allen this weekend and charged him with driving under the influence. He was booked in Miami and held on $1,000 bond.

According to the arrest affidavit, Allen revved the engine of his Ferrari at a police barricade at about 3:30 a.m. When an officer approached, Allen lowered his window, and told the officer, “I gotta get through.”

When the officer told Allen that the road was closed due to a traffic accident, Allen reportedly replied, “You don’t understand. I gotta get through.” Officers noticed that Allen had bloodshot eyes and a “constant sleepy look.” They asked him to get out of his car four times before he finally exited the car.

The arrest report indicates that Allen was given two Breathalyzer tests, as required under Florida law. The result of one test showed his blood alcohol level at more than twice the legal limit of .08. The other test registered .152, according to the arrest affidavit.

A nine-year NFL veteran, Allen missed the final 10 games last season because of a knee injury that required surgery.

A Hillsborough Circuit Judge sentenced Kevin Smith of Oldsmar to a year and a day in state prison this week after Smith pleaded guilty to the drunk driving death of a Tampa woman in 2008. Smith was charged with DUI manslaughter related to the death of Vickie Colonna.

Colonna’s family had originally asked that Smith receive the maximum 15-year sentence. Prosecutors told the judge this week, however, that the state and Colonna’s family accepted the one-year sentence which was the result of a plea negotiation.

After Smith completes his prison sentence, he will be placed on 10 years of probation. His driver’s license was permanently revoked and he must perform 50 hours of community service and pay up to $12,200 restitution to cover Colonna’s medical and funeral expenses. (more…)

A Sarasota County hair stylist spent Christmas day in jail after being charged with DUI. Lynn Marie Peirce allegedly drove into another car, and then fled the scene of the accident.

Law enforcement says that Peirce ran a stop sign, crashed into another car, then left the scene and drove to her own house. Officers found her there, sitting in her car in front of her house. According to the officers, she appeared intoxicated.

Peirce told officers she was just coming home from work, but she apparently left seven hours before the collision. Her driver’s license had expired in 1998. She then failed a sobriety test. (more…)

Anthony Green, a St. Petersburg city police officer, was arrested last week by colleagues for driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident. A police spokesman said that Green was off-duty on Friday night when he allegedly hit two cars in separate incidents on Fourth Street.

Police received a report shortly after 10 p.m., indicating that there had been a hit-and-run collision at 38th Avenue North and Fourth Street. Several teens were in that car, which was stopped at a red light, and one of them got the license plate number of the other car as it reversed away from the crash and pulled around the teens’ car to drive away. (more…)

Back in 2007, a Manatee County Sheriff’s deputy arrested John Bennett on a DUI charge, claiming that Bennett showed signs of impairment like slurred speech and failure to perform roadside sobriety tests after being pulled over on his motorcycle.

Bennett disputes that version of the account, saying he spoke clearly, balanced well on one foot and walked a straight line that night. The entire event was captured by a squad car video camera, but the deputy inadvertently erased the video while trying to convert it to DVD before the case could come to trial.

A Manatee County trial judge eventually dismissed the case because of the lost evidence. Two years of appeals over the dismissal followed. Last week, the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that the case be remanded to the trial court. Bennett will have to once again fight the DUI charge in county court. (more…)

Heather Dison of Zephyrhills pleaded guilty last week in Pasco Circuit Court to DUI manslaughter and eight related charges. She faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced on December 22nd. Until then, Dison waits in the Land O’ Lakes Jail.

Dison faced the charges for causing a three-car crash in June 2007 just north of Dade City. The wreck killed one man and injured four other people. Law enforcement said Dison drove her pickup north in the southbound lanes of U.S. 301 and hit a southbound car. The 23-year-old driver of that car was killed and his passenger was injured.

A third car struck a ladder that had fallen from Dison’s truck onto the road, sending that vehicle into a utility pole, injuring the driver and one of his passengers.

Prosecutors alleged that Dison had a blood-alcohol level of 0.251 percent and had been driving 70 mph in a 55 mph zone, in addition to driving the wrong way. Florida law presumes a driver intoxicated at a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent.

Thomas Corbin of St. Petersburg has been charged with DUI manslaughter and DUI causing serious bodily injury, relating to a wreck at a traffic light in September of this year.

Law enforcement says that Corbin drove his Toyota pickup into the back of a Nissan, stopped at Gulf to Bay Boulevard and Hampton Road at about midnight on September 24.

All three occupants of the Nissan were seriously injured. Maxwell Limonick, a backseat passenger, died from his injuries about a week later. The other two occupants of the Nissan received non-life-threatening injuries.

Corbin’s blood alcohol level was .20, more than double the legal limit of .08, according to police. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the DUI manslaughter charge. The DUI causing serious bodily injury charge can carry up to five years in prison.

We just commented here last week on a Minnesota man who pleaded guilty to DUI for driving a lawnmower-turned-motorized-recliner and noted that a similar charge was possible under Florida law. And now, news comes out of Marion County near Ocala, that the sheriff’s department there has charged a man with DUI for driving a lawnmower while intoxicated.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office reported that Ron Martin and a woman were riding a stolen riding lawnmower down a road in Belleview, Florida last week when they crashed into a school bus. The mower had been reported stolen from a local home earlier that day. (more…)

Dennis LeRoy Anderson of northern Minnesota has pleaded guilty to driving his motorized La-Z-Boy chair while drunk. Anderson left a bar in Proctor, MN in August 2008 in the recliner – after drinking eight or nine beers, according to police.

The chair was powered by a converted lawnmower. It had a stereo and cup holders. Anderson was charged with DUI when he crashed the chair into a parked vehicle after leaving the bar. He was not seriously injured but his blood alcohol content was 0.29. Just as in Florida, a driver is presumed intoxicated in Minnesota if his blood alcohol level is 0.08 or higher. (more…)