A sentencing date has been set for a Villager found sleeping in a truck at a gate near a section of the Morse family compound on County Road 466.
Thomas Kent Brown, 51, of the Village of Collier, pleaded no contest last week in Sumter County Court to a charge of driving under the influence. Sentencing has been set for March 31.
Brown was found at 3:07 a.m. Aug. 15, 2020 in a black Ford F-150 pickup that was blocking the entrance gate at Glen Hollow Farms, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. Brown said he parked there “to chill out” and was about to lay back and go to sleep when deputies arrived on the scene, the report said. He had removed his sandals and placed them under the truck’s pedals.
The North Carolina native was invited to participate in field sobriety exercises and “he almost fell several times” while the exercises were being conducted, the report said. A Coca-Cola glass was found in the cupholder of the truck and it contained a liquid believed to be red wine.
Brown agreed to provide a breath sample, but of the samples he provided, none “were of sufficient volume for a definitive test result,” the report said.