A 50-year-old man living with his 81-year-old mother in The Villages has gotten a break after a driving under the influence charge last year at the entrance gate at the Village of LaBelle North.
An attorney for Robert Erik Green was successful earlier this month in Sumter County Court in getting the DUI charge reduced to a charge of reckless driving. Green, who lives with his mother at 3485 Boardroom Trail, has been sentenced to probation in the case.
The New Jersey native had been at the wheel of a red Volkswagen at about 3:30 p.m. Dec. 27 traveling north on Morse Boulevard and turning onto Moyer Loop when the vehicle’s erratic maneuvering caught the attention of a Sumter County sheriff’s deputy.
“I observed the vehicle drive over the curb and nearly strike the gate button prior to turning off the curb and landing back in the roadway,” the deputy wrote in the arrest report.
Green denied he had been drinking but had “noticeably constricted pupils and droopy eyelids,” the report said. He handed the deputy his license and registration, as well as a Florida Medical Marijuana Card and a handicap placard registration. He said he takes Seroquel and marijuana.
In 2018, Green was arrested at his home in the Village of LaBelle North on a warrant charging him with felony marijuana cultivation. He was allowed to enter into a pre-trial intervention program and that case was dismissed.