Drunk Driver Tries To Charge A Jail Deputy After A DUI Arrest

An officer asked a driver for his license outside the Fort Myers airport. The man handed over his license and his credit card. What happened next ended with a dent in the patrol car. On the evening of January 19, 2025, Lee County Port Authority police got a call about a reckless driver heading inbound on Terminal Access Road at Southwest Florida International Airport. An officer got behind a grey SUV and watched it drift between lanes, straddle the dashed line, and accelerate to 54 in a 45. He turned on his lights and siren and the car kept going for roughly 3,800 feet before it finally pulled over near the bridge. The driver was the only person in the car. Before a single sobriety test began, slurring his words, he volunteered that he was drunk. He couldn't follow a pen light with his eyes. He couldn't stand still long enough to be given instructions. He had to be physically held up to keep him from stepping into traffic, and the officer stopped the tests early because continuing wasn't safe. He struggled during handcuffing, then told the officer he'd been arrested for DUI before. When he said the cuffs hurt his shoulder, the officer put a second set on to ease them. He refused the breath test on the way to jail. And at the jail door, in front of a nurse and a deputy, he tried to charge the deputy and called him an animal. He was charged with DUI under Florida Statute 316.193(1)(a) and DUI Refusal under 316.1939(1), plus four citations. He was adjudicated guilty in August 2025.