A snowbird who was arrested after allegedly using her underwire bra to try to escape from jail will not be prosecuted on an attempted escape charge.
Susan Mae Sheppard, 59, of Massachusetts, was arrested after her red Lincoln SUV was involved in an accident on Oct. 30 at Walgreens on County Road 466, across from Southern Trace Plaza in The Villages, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
It appeared that Sheppard, a native of Keene, N.H. who was driving on a Massachusetts license, had been driving impaired. She initially agreed to participate in field sobriety exercises, but refused to continue once she had trouble performing the exercises. Her breath sample measured .000 blood alcohol content. She consented to a urine sample. She was transported to the Sumter County Detention Center where she was booked on a DUI charge.
Sheppard was placed in a holding cell, but a jailer discovered that she had “removed the metal wiring from her bra” and used it to make “numerous scrape marks” on the glass on the bottom of the holding cell door. She attempted to crawl out of a small opening in the holding cell door “feet first,” the arrest report said. She had to be told to “pull her legs back into the cell.”
However, a document on file in Sumter County Court indicates that the prosecutor’s office has opted to drop the attempted escape charge against Sheppard. She continues to face DUI and criminal mischief charges as well as a careless driving ticket. She has a court date on Tuesday.
