A 68-year-old Ocklawaha woman was arrested on a drunk driving charge early on the Fourth of July after she was unable to complete field sobriety exercises without falling over.
Denise Rae Shiever was driving a green Kia Soul at about 2:18 a.m. Saturday when a Marion County sheriff’s deputy spotted her swerving southbound on SE 183rd Avenue Road.
The deputy initiated a traffic stop in the 5000 block and made contact with Shiever, who was reportedly struggling to get her driver’s license out. According to the arrest affidavit, the deputy smelled the odor of alcohol, but Shiever initially denied drinking, claiming she was just driving home from meeting with friends and was almost there.
When asked to step out of the vehicle for field sobriety exercises, Shiever had a difficult time walking. She swayed heavily during a vision exercise and eventually admitted to the deputy that she had been drinking with friends at the Fire Rock Pub for several hours and couldn’t remember how many drinks she had consumed.
During the walk-and-turn exercise, Shiever could not maintain her balance to even get into the starting position. The deputy aborted the exercise out of concern she would fall. When asked if she wanted to attempt the one-leg stand, Shiever told the deputy “she can try but it’s obvious that she cannot and she knows what is going to happen.” When she attempted to lift her leg, she immediately began to fall over and had to catch herself.
For her safety, the deputy had Shiever sit on the bumper of the patrol vehicle to conduct seated exercises. While seated, she repeatedly missed the tip of her nose during a finger-to-nose exercise and sang the alphabet despite being instructed not to.
When the deputy asked her to rate her intoxication on a scale of 1 to 10, Shiever estimated she was a “5.” She told the deputy she didn’t know why she was drinking and driving, adding that she “just wanted to see her friends.”
Shiever was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence and transported to the Marion County Jail, where she provided breath samples registering .125 and .121 blood alcohol content.
She was booked at the Marion County Jail and released after posting $1,000 bond.