A Villager arrested on a drunk driving charge wanted to place a bet on the level of her blood alcohol content measured by a breathalyzer.
Mary Kessler Westerlund, 62, of the Village of Tierra Del Sol South, was in a gray Acura at about 10:30 p.m. Monday at The Villages Public Safety Department’s Fire Station 41 at County Road 466 and Morse Boulevard when law enforcement was alerted to the possibility she may have been driving while intoxicated.
A Sumter County sheriff’s deputy found that Westerlund had “bloodshot glassy eyes and heavily slurred speech,” according to an arrest report.
“I repeatedly attempted to speak with the (Westerlund), however she was so impaired she would just scream at me. While she was screaming I could smell the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from her breath,” the deputy wrote in the report.
When asked to step out of her vehicle, she told the deputy she was “not going to jail.” When she was escorted to a patrol car, she repeatedly attempted to pull away.
She struggled through field sobriety exercises.
When Westerlund was asked to provide a breath sample, she wanted to wager a quarter with the machine’s operator, predicting she would measure .190 blood alcohol content. She provided samples that registered .229 and .210 blood alcohol content.
She was arrested on charges of driving under the influence and resisting arrest. She was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center and released after posting $3,000 bond.
Westerlund had been arrested on a DUI charge in 2015 at the Hampton Inn on County Road 466. She was placed on probation for one year and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service. Court records indicate Westerlund won early termination of her probation and she was able to buy out of her community service.
