Sheriff’s Office Employee Avoids Florida DUI in Brooksville

No drunk driving charge for finance director because she was not seen behind wheel of truck.

Two witnesses chased but could not keep up with a speeding pick-up truck as it ran cars off the road and even slid through a highway intersection and briefly stopped in a ditch. After briefly losing sight of the truck, the concerned motorists finally caught up to it and found a crumpled street sign, the vehicle on the side of the road and the presumed driver outside the vehicle looking at the bumper.

The woman looking at the truck was Emily Vernon, the finance director for the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office. She got back in the truck before surrendering her keys to one of her chasers, tumbled into a nearby ditch and danced in the road. Police arriving on the scene found two wine carafes, one empty, in the truck, and detected a faint odor of alcohol. Even though Vernon admitted to having consumed half a bottle of wine and to have taken sleeping medication an hour before the accident, police elected not to charge Vernon with driving under the influence in Florida because no witness could confirm that she had been behind the wheel. In the police report, an officer on the scene said that a DUI with property damage was not advisable because there were no accident witnesses.

A sheriff’s supervisor agreed, stating that with no ‘wheel witness’ a case of drunk driving in Hernando County would be difficult to prove in the courtroom. Instead, Vernon, 39, was charged with a single car collision.

She does however still face an internal affairs investigation.

If you have been charged with a Florida DUI in Hernando County you need to hire a Hernando County, FL DUI attorney.