A Villager was nearly “toxic” last year when her car crashed into a parked car at a home on the Historic Side of The Villages.
Stacy Duroe Fitzgerald, 60, of the Village of Piedmont, was arrested this past week by Marion County sheriff’s deputies on a Lake County warrant charging her with driving under the influence with property damage. She was released after posting $2,500 bond. She entered a plea of not guilty in the case Wednesday in Lake County Court.
Fitzgerald, who was arrested in January in a separate drunk driving incident, had been at the wheel of vehicle at about 6 p.m. Aug. 22 when she crashed into a small tree, a carport attached to a residence and a parked car at a home in the 800 block of Sharon Drive, according to an affidavit of probable cause from the Lady Lake Police Department.
Fitzgerald was still buckled in the driver’s seat of her vehicle and had to be “shaken to stay awake.” She admitted she had been drinking. There were two bottles of vodka on the floorboard of the car, one bottle was half empty and the other was completely empty. There were also four 200ml bottles of SKOL vodka in the car, two were full and unopened, one was open and partially empty and one was completely empty.
Fitzgerald was so “severely intoxicated” that she was taken by ambulance to UF Health-The Villages Hospital.
In February, an officer investigating the crash obtained medical records that showed that Fitzgerald “was nearly to the point of being toxic” and had a blood alcohol level of .380. A bench warrant was issued for her arrest. In her January DUI arrest, her blood alcohol level had been .305. She is due to enter a plea on May 16 in the Sumter County DUI case.
