A Florida school bus driver charged with DUI showed up impaired in court, judge says
A Florida school bus driver who was accused of driving drunk with 40 kids aboard his bus in February didn’t exactly ingratiate himself to the court at his hearing on Monday.
According to reports, and court records, Mark Michael McNeill, 60, was arrested in Palm Coast, a city in Florida’s Flagler County, on Feb. 9. Police say he was driving a school bus while impaired.
But on Monday when he appeared before Judge Terence Perkins to answer to the felony charges of child neglect and DUI and resisting an officer without violence, he not only arrived late to court but apparently impaired.
“I don’t want to waste anybody’s time and I’m really sorry,” McNeill tells the court as he stands next to his attorney in a video posted on Twitter by Fox 35 reporter Stephanie Buffamonte.
“Here’s the problem. I think you’re impaired,” Perkins responds.
“No, I’m not,” McNeill says.
The judge orders testing to determine whether McNeill is impaired, to which he responds: “I’m not getting tested.” Finally, as he is handcuffed to be taken into custody, McNeill says, “I am impaired.”
The court records’ urinalysis test could not be completed, however. The record on Monday said he refused to deliver.
“The subject was unwilling or unable to provide a sufficient urine sample.”
The court had to reset a plea and sentencing hearing and court is expected to reconvene on Wednesday, according to Fox 35.
Court documents say while he was transporting the 40 kids from Buddy Taylor Middle School that Wednesday February afternoon, he failed to provide “a child with the care, supervision, and services necessary to maintain the child’s physical and mental health.”
McNeil also resisted arrest and would not stop his bus when ordered to do so by both a school transportation officer who had smelled alcohol on his breath while he was still at the bus depot.
When he finally did pull over, court records say he complained of leg pain but when transported by ambulance to an area hospital he bolted and ran across hospital grounds until Flagler deputies were able to capture him.
At that point, according to court records, McNeill twice refused to take a sobriety test even after officers said they could smell alcohol on his breath. When booked into jail, he registered a .320 on the first test and .310 on the second, far above Florida’s legal limit for regular drivers of 0.08. School bus drivers are supposed to not drink at all when on duty.
A Flagler parent whose daughter was on the bus took to Twitter to say: “Guy was so drunk when they chased him down and boarded the bus he fell in the ditch exiting the bus. Daughter called me legitimately scared. Not good!”
According to Flagler Live.Com, McNeill had an accident while driving that same bus two days earlier on Feb. 7 when he hit a sedan while carrying 23 students from another school, Old Kings Elementary. The sedan’s driver had minor injuries. McNeill’s drug and alcohol test came back negative in that incident.
