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Judge Sets Bail For Man Who Left Accident Scene On Bike

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By MARK  DOUGLAS | News Channel 8

Published: October 15, 2008

William Scott McCoy has spent three weeks locked up without bail in the Pinellas County jail for something not even his own lawyer understood was illegal until prosecutors explained it to him.

McCoy left the scene of a vehicle accident Sept. 16 on a bicycle, say Pinellas County sheriff's deputies.

"To me, it's just weird. The whole thing's weird," said McCoy's lawyer Thomas Tripp at a bond hearing Wednesday.

Tripp wanted Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Philip J. Federico to let McCoy out of jail on his own recognizance. Federico refused because two other judges had released McCoy twice since June, he said. McCoy was arrested in June for driving his pickup truck with a suspended or revoked license, Federico said.

In September, McCoy collided with a car while riding a bicycle and left the scene, so he was arrested again, Pinellas deputies say.

The motorist in that accident said in court that she saw McCoy toss his damaged bike into the trunk of a car driven by someone referred to in court Wednesday as a "mystery woman" who then drove McCoy home. The motorist stayed at the scene and summoned police.

McCoy called deputies hours later from his home to report the incident. A deputy later arrested him for leaving the scene and noted in his report that McCoy had the smell of alcohol on his breath.

McCoy has at least four DUI convictions in multiple states according to prosecutors. That led Federico to wonder aloud whether McCoy was tipsy when his bike collided with the car,

"He says he wasn't, [but] the cop said he smelled alcohol coming from him," Federico said while trying to determine a fair bail for McCoy.

Federico eventually set McCoy's bail at $20,000.

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