Suspect’s six DUIs just too much for a Florida sheriff: He ‘needs to stay locked up’
A Central Florida man was just arrested and charged with his sixth DUI, and local authorities have about had it with him.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, deputies arrested Kevin Patrick of Lakeland on driving under the influence and other charges following a single-vehicle crash last week.
According to the affidavit, around 6:10 a.m. Thursday, Polk deputies responding to a crash site found an empty bronze 2019 Kia Sportage on its roof, the driver’s side rear door open. On the ground outside the open door was an open container of alcohol.
Patrick, “wet and covered in grass and dirt,” was found walking east about a mile away.
“Deputies smelled the odor of alcohol on Patrick and observed his eyes to be bloodshot and watery,” said the sheriff’s news release, adding the driver’s license had been suspended since 2013. “He would frequently blink his eyes and spoke with a slur.”
As deputies were talking to the 55-year-old suspect, he reportedly dropped a small black object, which turned out to be the key to the Kia involved in the wreck. Patrick told deputies he found the key and was “thinking someone on Facebook would report it missing,” and he’d return it. He then “changed his story,” saying the totaled car belonged to his roommate, who is incarcerated.
Inside Patrick’s jacket was a receipt for gas at a Circle K in Lakeland. Deputies made contact with the station’s clerk, who told authorities Patrick is a frequent customer who often purchases alcohol and asked her that morning if it was “too early” for him to buy booze.
The store’s surveillance footage showed the Kia, driven by Patrick, enter the parking lot at around 5:50 a.m. After purchasing gas, the suspect was seen traveling south, failing to stop before entering the intersection and heading toward the crash location, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies say Patrick is behind bars at Polk County Jail on no bond, facing numerous charges beside DUI, including failure to give information at crash, refusal to submit to breath alcohol level test and knowingly driving with a suspended license.
He likely won’t be driving for a long time.
“When someone gets behind the wheel of a vehicle drunk, they have no regard for life,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in the arrest announcement. “Thank God he didn’t hurt or kill anyone.”
Judd added that Patrick has been given “chance after chance to change,” but now “needs to stay locked up.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 12:06 PM.
