A longtime local server who lives in The Villages was jailed late Thursday night on a drunk driving charge for the second time in five months.
Marion County sheriff’s deputies were called to Bay Place in Ocklawaha after receiving reports of a woman unconscious in a vehicle that was parked on the side of the roadway. When they arrived, crews from Marion County Fire Rescue were treating 42-year-old Carrie Rae Geer. The Village of Hemingway resident, who lives on Bartlet Lane, was still sitting in the driver’s seat of her 2018 silver Toyota SUV, a sheriff’s office report states, adding that paramedics reported smelling the odor of alcoholic beverages while treating her.
The Michigan native told deputies she was heading to Jacksonville to visit a friend even though she was parked on a backroad in Ocklawaha. After noting that her eyes were bloodshot and watery and her speech was slurred, deputies invited Geer to participate in field sobriety exercises, which she agreed to do.
Geer struggled through all five sobriety tests – she failed to touch her nose and continually swayed – and even required deputies to prevent her from falling at one point. She was then transported to the Marion County Jail, where she provided breath samples showing .294 and .308 blood alcohol content.
Geer was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol (second offense) and driving while license suspended. She was being held on $11,000 bond and her next court date hasn’t yet been set.
A criminal history check showed that Geer was convicted of DUI on Feb. 10 in Lake County and her driver’s license was suspended for 180 days. That followed her arrest in November 2019 when she was caught driving with her high beams on after admitting to sipping Bud Lights at the Shamrock Lounge in Leesburg. The former Cove Apartments resident had provided breath samples that registered .177 and .187 blood alcohol content, a report showed.