A 71-year-old Villager was arrested after law enforcement was called to a troubled home in the Village of Santiago.
The son of David William Arnold on Monday night went to a neighbor’s home asking her to call 911 due to his father driving while intoxicated, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
When a deputy arrived at the home at 1208 Carvello Drive, he saw Arnold drive a silver Toyota down Carvello Drive and into the home’s garage. The deputy had been called a short time earlier to a separate incident at the Arnold home and had seen Arnold sitting on the front porch drinking an alcoholic beverage.
Arnold agreed to take part in field sobriety exercises, but said it would be difficult for him to perform the exercises due to previous hip surgery. He had trouble touching the tip of his nose and reciting the alphabet. He provided a pair of breath samples with each registering .034 blood alcohol content. The Lexington, S.C. native was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence and booked at the Sumter County Detention Center. He was released after posting $1,000 bond.
Earlier this year, Arnold’s 30-year-old son learned he would escape prosecution in an attack on his father at their Village of Santiago home.
In that altercation, in which the elder Arnold said he had feared for his life, he had tried to restrict his son from taking medication for his bi-polar condition.
The same son was arrested at the Carvello Drive home in 2017 after he was tracked down in the aftermath of a four-vehicle crash near Wal-Mart in Summerfield.
He also managed to escape prosecution in that case.
