MOUNT DORA, Fla. — It was just about 11 o’clock on a Friday night when Mount Dora police officers responded to a crash on Highway 441. A man in a pick-up truck crashed into a car that was stopped at a red light. That man turned out to be Maitland Police officer Joshua Rotarius.
The Mount Dora officer responding wrote in his crash report, “to be noted, I could smell the impurities of Alcohol emitting from his person and breath. Joshus also had red glossy eyes and was leaning on his vehicle.”
Initially, Officer Rotarius didn’t want to go through a field sobriety exercise, according to the report. And he told the Mount Dora officers that the driver in front of him suddenly slammed on the brakes, and Rotarius
accused the other driver of trying to scam him, claiming the damage spotted on the back of his car was pre-existing. “It’s your opportunity to show that you’re not drunk, why would you not do them,” a Mount Dora officer asked Rotarius. And then, according to the report, Rotarius made a call to a Lake County Deputy and a Maitland Lieutenant, both told him the decision to do the field sobriety exercise was his alone, which he finally agreed to.
Officer Rotarius struggles through the first part of the field sobriety exercise, asking the officer if he needed to count out loud while holding up his leg, as part of the exercise. And then he wobbles through the second part.
The internal affairs report recently completed and released to 9-Investigates shows he was suspended 100 hours, placed on a year of probation, removed from specialty assignments and required to attend substance abuse treatment because of what the Maitland Police Chief and the internal affairs investigator saw in the video.
We also uncovered in that IA report that the Maitland internal affairs investigation raises serious questions about why those Mount Dora officers responding to the scene turned their body cameras on and off, which we saw firsthand while reviewing the video. The report mentions those officers didn’t learn Officer Rotarius was a cop until he was placed in handcuffs when he stated, “I’m also a cop,” to which a Mount Dora officer turns and says, “Where, man, why didn’t you say that.”
A spokesperson for Maitland Police told us the officer’s discipline is consistent with department policies. The officer’s attorney told us they’re fighting this case because of how the investigation was handled and Officer Rotarius has pleaded not guilty, though in an internal affairs audio-recorded interview he admits to consuming up to 11 drinks while bar-hopping in Mount Dora and Tavares that night. “That week my dad was in the hospital, or in and out of the hospital a bunch and they couldn’t really figure out what was going on. There’s also a couple of positions that I was trying to go for and one I’ve been trying for a few years that I didn’t get. And I don’t know, it seemed like everything was kinda going downhill,” Officer Rotarius said.
He also mentioned that he’s still dealing with PTSD from what he experienced when he responded to the Pulse Nightclub shooting back in 2016. “I have some pre- existing PTSD from an incident at our department. Which I was in counseling for before, and I thought I was finally good and then everything kinda built up and kinda sent me down a spiral,” Officer Rotarius said.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
©2025 Cox Media Group
