A Villager began serving a prison sentence on Thursday after her seventh conviction for driving under the influence.
Donna Hansen, 63, of the Village of Chatham, was sentenced earlier this month in Marion County Court to 15 months in prison.
She was turned over to the Florida Department of Corrections and began the process of incarceration at the Florida Women’s Reception Center in Ocala. It is highly likely Hansen will be assigned to the Lowell Correctional Facility for Women in Marion County, currently home to 91-year-old Villager Marilyn Hamilton, convicted in a hit-and-run involving two bicyclists, and 37-year-old Jessica Lewis, convicted of inflicting a skull fracture on her young child while living on the Historic Side of The Villages.
Hansen had been free on $10,000 bond in a July 9, 2022 golf cart driving under the influence case when she was arrested this past June 20 after an intoxicated altercation with a man at her home. The prosecutor’s office on June 29 decided not to pursue the battery charge because the man she allegedly attacked expressed his desire not to see her prosecuted. However, the incident exposed the fact that the native New Yorker had been drinking, which was a violation of her bond in the golf cart DUI.
Prior to the 2022 drunk driving arrest, Hansen already had six convictions for driving under the influence, including convictions in Broward, Volusia and Palm Beach counties.
