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After Wreck, Girl, 8, Tells Deputy 'My Mother Is Drunk'
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Published: December 14, 2007
HOLIDAY - An 8-year-old girl had a serious request - and potentially incriminating information about her mother - when she ran up to a Pasco County sheriff's deputy who was checking on a reported wreck.
"Help me. My mother is drunk, and she crashed her car," the child reportedly said Wednesday night.
The deputy said Angela Atkinson appeared to be "extremely intoxicated," and he found extensive front-end damage to her car, case documents state. Her daughter had been inside.
"I don't care if I am drunk; I don't give a damn," Atkinson reportedly told the deputy.
A Florida Highway Patrol trooper noted Atkinson showed signs of intoxication and reported that she performed poorly on field sobriety tests. She refused to take a breath test.
Troopers learned Atkinson, 32, had been in a couple of crashes before she stopped her car at Atlantis and Merrilon drives. She hit a vehicle as she headed south on U.S. 19, a witness reported, and collided with another driver when she drove away from the first wreck.
A motorist who followed Atkinson called authorities. When the trooper arrived, he reportedly heard Atkinson screaming and cursing at the deputy.
As the trooper began investigating, Atkinson reportedly asked to be taken to jail and made other statements, including: "I drank way too much, but leave my daughter alone. I screwed up, not her."
The girl gave the trooper more details: "Mommy is driving crazy. She hit a truck and then she hit this car. Every time she drinks she gets like this. She was drinking beer and wine at Virginia's."
Atkinson, of 2395 Powers St., Palm Harbor, faces charges of child abuse, drunken driving, leaving the scene of an accident involving property damage and two counts of DUI damage to property. She was being held Thursday at the Land O' Lakes Jail with bail set at $6,500.
Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or
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