A snowbird who used her underwire bra to try to escape from jail has escaped a drunk driving conviction.
Susan Mae Sheppard, 59, of Massachusetts, pleaded no contest this past week in Sumter County Court to a charge of reckless driving, reduced from a charge of driving under the influence. She has been placed on probation for one year and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.
She had been arrested when 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.”
