A Leesburg man was taken into custody on a drunk driving charge after bottles of beer were discovered alongside him when he was pulled over for nearly hitting another car.
Jonathan Jesus Cruz, 22, sped past a deputy on State Road 19 in Umatilla at 85 mph around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, December 20, according to an arrest report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
When the deputy came behind Cruz, he drove from left to right, nearly colliding with another vehicle. He then returned to the left lane and made a left onto Roberts Street. He continued until the deputy activated his siren, at which point he turned right and eventually stopped into a grass field on Blanche Avenue, according to the report.
When the deputy approached the driver’s side of the vehicle, he could instantly smell alcohol. Cruz was wobbly on his feet when he got out, and numerous bottles of beer were discovered on the passenger side of the floorboard. He completed one field sobriety exercise but denied the others, although he later submitted breath samples with blood alcohol concentrations of 0.225 and 0.210, according to the report.
The California native was arrested for DUI and taken to Lake County Jail on a $1,000 bond.
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