A resident of The Villages who described himself as “schizophrenic” won’t be prosecuted in an arrest earlier this year at Brownwood.
Jason John Dacci, 49, who lives at 1096 Golden Grove Drive in the Village of Sabal Chase, was arrested Oct. 27 on a charge of driving under the influence.
His arrest sparked outrage from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which declared, “Schizophrenia is a no-fault brain disease.” The organization argued that Dacci should have been hospitalized, not arrested.
The prosecutor’s office announced earlier this month it was dropping the case against Dacci. He was released from jail, where he had been lodged since his arrest.
At the time of his arrest, Dacci was driving a silver 2009 Toyota Camry on State Road 44 at Meggison Road and traveling at an “abnormally slow speed,” according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. Dacci pulled into Brownwood and parked at Babette’s Furniture and Home. A deputy approached the vehicle and found Dacci behaving in a peculiar matter.
“He had both arms, locked straight onto the steering wheel, and seemed very nervous,” the deputy wrote in the arrest report.
The deputy asked the Warwick, N.Y. native why he had been driving so slowly. Dacci said he was “paranoid.” Dacci also told the deputy he was, “Schizophrenic and Bi-polar and was taking several anti-depressant medications for his disorders.”
The deputy asked Dacci to participate in field sobriety exercises. He struggled through the exercises.
Dacci provided a breath sample that registered .00. He agreed to provide a urine specimen, but could not urinate.
