OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Lt. David Rodriquez just told us a few days ago about being hit on the side of the road along the 528 back in 2012.
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Back then, the driver failed to move over. We talked to him because it was Move Over Month, a public awareness campaign to get people to move over for first responders, and others stopped alongside the road.
He told us, “I am here through God’s grace.” And now he is saying it again because, for the second time in 12 years, he was hit just doing his job.
Rodriquez was the law enforcement officer hit by an off-duty Osceola county sheriff’s deputy earlier this week and once again had to get his message out, posting on Facebook, “Once again I took a pretty hard hit 2 nights ago for a vehicle that failed to move over. At least I’m coming home to sleep tonight. Last time, it took me 9 months to come home.”
The Osceola County deputy was arrested, and the charges were quickly dropped.
Now, the arrest is under an internal review by the Florida Highway Patrol.
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There are questions about exactly what happened after this crash.
According to the report, the FHP sergeant was dispatched just after 10:00 p.m., but the field sobriety test wasn’t until 1:15 a.m.
Hunter Perkins passed the test, and the sergeant wrote the deputy “was not under the influence of any alcoholic beverage or controlled substance, but arrested Perkins.
Defense attorney Richard Hornsby said there was no probable cause for that, “It’s an anomaly...normally law enforcement Identify whether you know, bloodshot eyes or something like this, and it’s like a checklist of things that suggest someone is not under the influence of any alcohol. You know, just by itself, there would’ve been no legal basis even to arrest him, require him to even submit to a breathalyzer because there’s no suggestion that he had been drinking other than his statement that he had some drinks earlier in the day.”
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Perkins said he had some drinks and couldn’t remember the crash.
He was later transported to the hospital.
It was then almost 8:00 a.m. before the breathalyzer was given, almost 12 hours after the crash as both tests showed he was sober.
So far, all responding FHP personnel are still on duty.
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