A New Yorker with a Leesburg home was arrested Monday night after crashing into some bushes near a local bank.
George Hammond, 74, of 5205 Treasure View Way, was being treated by EMS when a Leesburg officer made contact him with. His red Ford Escape was in the bushes at the BB&T bank branch located at 27417 U.S. Hwy. 27. Officers noted that the tire tracks from the vehicle led to the median of the nearby highway where there was a damaged traffic sign.
Officers noticed that Hammond was slurring his words and they detected the smell of alcohol on his breath. A nurse who witnessed the crash said she helped Hammond until EMS arrived and didn’t “believe he should be driving,” a Leesburg Police report states.
Hammond was transported to the South Lake Hospital at Blue Cedar and was met by an officer as he was being discharged. He told the officer he had consumed “approximately three shots of vodka” at about 3 p.m. And he agreed to perform field sobriety tests, though he told the officer he has knee problems and recently received shots in his left knee, the report states.
Hammond told the officer he couldn’t perform the tests that required him to stand on one leg or walk and turn and turn. He then failed three other tests, including saying the alphabet wrong, and was taken into custody.
Hammond was taken to the Leesburg Police Department, where he provided breath samples that registered .1489 and .149 blood alcohol content. He was then transported to the Lake County Jail and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol with property damage. He was released early Tuesday morning on $1,000 bond and is due in a Lake County courtroom on April 10 to answer to the charge.