by Teresa Eubanks, CLJNews.com
HOSFORD, FL – A Cooper City, FL man traveling through Liberty County was charged with DUI after he ran his rental car off the road and into a treeline at the intersection of SR 20 and SR 267 shortly after 8 p.m. Friday, according to the arrest report from the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office.
The vehicle went about 50 yards south of the intersection and got stuck in the mud.
A deputy arrived to find David Michael Menton, 55, leaning against a patrol car. The arrest report noted David was covered in mud and smelled strongly of alcohol.
When the deputy accompanied David to the crashed vehicle to get his wallet, he saw four empty beer bottles in the front passenger area and found seven cold, unopened bottles of beer remaining in an 18-pack box of Stella Artois.
The driver, who the deputy observed as being “very unsteady on his feet to the point that he almost fell over” agreed to take a field sobriety test. He was unable to complete the exercises due to swaying, stumbling and not following directions. When asked to walk a straight line on level ground, he stepped off the mark six times while taking his first nine steps, according to the deputy’s report.
He gave breath samples for an intoxilyzer test two hours later which resulted in readings of 0.16 and 0.17. The legal limit is 0.08.
The car was towed and the driver was taken to the Liberty County Jail, where he was charged with DUI, possession of an open container and running a stop sign.