Just one week after one drunk driver made headlines for trying to bribe his way out of a DUI ticket, another intoxicated driver made an unsuccessful attempt to purchase a “get out of jail free” card.
Ashley Anderson, a 21-year-old resident of Orlando, Florida, was pulled over by police for driving while intoxicated at about 3:00 a.m. Thursday morning, according to a report from the Orlando Sentinel.
Anderson was initially pulled over for traveling 12 miles per hour about the speed limit. And sources say that she could have simply been charged with a misdemeanor if she had handled the arrest in a responsible fashion. Anderson, however, did not handle the arrest in a wise manner.
After police pulled her over, she refused to leave the car, forcing the officer to ask her multiple times to leave her vehicle.
When she kept refusing to leave her 2008 Nissan Altima, the arresting officer reached for her ignition, grabbed the keys, opened her door, and pulled her out by her left arm. The officer later stated in his report that he feared that Anderson would try to flee the scene.
When he pulled Anderson from the car, the state trooper reported that he smelled an “obvious odor” of alcohol on her breath, and he also claims that she stumbled on the ground when she left the car and had difficulty walking to the police cruiser.
A quick search of the Altima after the arrest revealed a nearly empty bottle of tequila in Anderson’s car. Carrying an open bottle of liquor in a car is illegal in almost every state.
But despite her arrest, and the discovery of the tequila in her car, Anderson was still only facing a misdemeanor DUI charge. That is, until she opened her mouth.
Sources say that when the trooper put Anderson in the back of his car, she made several attempts to offer him $3,000 in exchange for letting her go. According to the police report, she told the officer, “[w]hatever I owe you, I can just pay you in cash.”
In an effort to convince the officer, Anderson claimed that she had escaped a previous DUI charge by giving the officer $2,000, although there is no way to confirm this story.
Needless to say, the officer in this case declined her offer, and prosecutors will now level an extra charge against Anderson for attempting to bribe a law enforcement officer, which is a felony in Florida.
