A Leesburg man was arrested Monday night after a Marion County sheriff’s deputy spotted him driving erratically in Summerfield.
The deputy was traveling near the 14300 block of S U.S. Hwy. 441 when he saw a dark-colored four-door vehicle that wasn’t maintaining its lane. The deputy reported seeing the vehicle drive on the white line on the east side of the roadway and then come across the centerline to the southbound lane. The vehicle also was accelerating and then slowing to about 40 mph, a sheriff’s office report states.
The deputy stopped the vehicle at the Mobile gas station at 14725 S U.S. Hwy. 441 and made contact with the driver, 65-year-old William Herbert Chesnut, whose speech was “slow and he appeared tired.” The deputy asked Chesnut if he was OK and he said he was. Chesnut also said he was a diabetic and was taking Metformin to treat the disease, the report says.
The deputy asked Chesnut to exit his vehicle after he said he had a firearm in the center console. Another deputy saw a pill bottle in Chesnut’s left front pocket that had the prescription label ripped off. Deputies then determined the pills in the bottle were Methadone Hydrochloride, a Schedule II narcotic, the report says.
Chesnut agreed to participate in field sobriety exercises and failed three of them. He blamed a previous foot surgery for not being able to complete two of the exercises and was then placed under arrest and transported to the Marion County Jail.
Upon arrival at the jail, Chesnut, who lives in the 10700 block of Westmont Rd. in Leesburg, provided a breath sample that showed .000 blood alcohol content. He also agreed to provide a urine sample and was evaluated by a deputy who is a drug recognition expert.
Chesnut was then booked into the jail and charged with driving under the influence and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. He was released early Tuesday afternoon on $3,000 bond and his next court date hasn’t yet been set, jail records show.