An Ocala woman was arrested early Tuesday morning after a Marion County sheriff’s deputy watched her drive the wrong way on a major roadway and then run over two curbs when trying to make a turn.
According to a sheriff’s office report, the deputy was sitting in his patrol car in the median just west of the intersection of SE 44th Avenue Road and SE Maricamp Road when he saw Heather Lynn McFall, 40, stop her red Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck at a red light. McFall then turned left on SE Maricamp Road and drove east in the westbound lanes before turning into a middle-divided area of the roadway and running over two curbs.
After the deputy stopped McFall at about 2:30 a.m., he noticed that her speech was mumbled and slurred and her eyes were bloodshot and watery. The deputy said he smelled the odor of alcohol on McFall’s breath and saw a six-pack of a bottled alcoholic beverage sitting on the vehicle’s floorboard, the report says, adding that one of the glass bottles was opened.
After failing four field sobriety tests, including not being able to properly recite the alphabet from A to Z, McFall was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. During a subsequent search of her vehicle, the deputy found a six-pack of Michelob Ultra. Two of the bottles were empty and a third was more than half empty, the report says.
McFall was transported to the Marion County Jail, where she refused to provide a breath sample. She was issued a citation for refusing to give the sample, as well as a written warning for careless driving.
McFall was released from the jail at 1:37 p.m. Tuesday on a $1,000 bond.
