A Villager’s adult son got a break in a drunk driving case after crashing a car earlier this year in a roundabout.
Stephen Paul Graf, 53, who lives with his mother at 1578 Long Loop in the Village of Hillsborough, earlier this month in Sumter County Court pleaded no contest to a charge of reckless driving, reduced from an original charge of driving under the influence. He paid $688.50 in fines and court costs.
He was arrested on a drunk driving charge March 10 after a crash in a roundabout in The Villages at County Road 44-A and Powell Road near Brownwood. When Wildwood police officers arrived on the scene, they found that Graf had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, according to the arrest report. When Graf was repeatedly asked for his insurance information, he handed the officer his vehicle’s registration paperwork. “It was clear to me that the defendant was not aware of which documents he was referring to,” the arresting officer wrote in the report. Graf refused to participate in field sobriety exercises and would not provide a breath sample.