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Should Pinellas Sheriff's Office Attorney Have Been Given Sobriety Test?

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 18, 2009

Just after midnight on Saturday, a tow truck driver spotted a car being driven erratically by an attorney for the Pinellas Sheriff's Office. But after sheriff's deputies showed up, they did not give her a field sobriety test, even though they believed she had been drinking, sheriff's administrators say.

Instead, they allowed her husband to come pick her up, said Bob Gualtieri, the chief deputy at the agency.

Within hours, the attorney, Jaime Eagan, who made $120,000 a year, offered her resignation, and Gualtieri said he accepted it.

Now the actions of the deputies involved in the 12:51 a.m. stop on Fourth Street North are the subject of an internal review, Gualtieri said. The deputies believed Eagan had been drinking, but thought she was a "borderline" drunken driving suspect, the sheriff's office says.

It is not unheard-of for law enforcement agents to allow a spouse or friend to pick up a motorist who was drinking before a traffic stop.

But they typically do so after they have the motorist go through a field sobriety test before deciding the level of impairment does not rise to the threshold of a drunken driving charge that will withstand a challenge from a defense attorney.

One of the things that will be looked at during the internal review is why the deputies in Eagan's case didn't even perform the test.

"From what I know, based on their observations, they made a determination that from what they were seeing, field sobriety tests weren't necessary to make a determination as to whether or not she should be arrested," Gualtieri said.

"They felt based on what they saw, they believed they had enough without field sobriety tests to make a determination there was not probable cause to make an arrest," he said. Some of the deputies dealing with Eagan were on the DUI squad.

Gualtieri said he was told of the decision at 1:45 a.m. after the husband had already been contacted.

"We'll make a determination whether deputies acted appropriately, and if they did not we'll address it accordingly," Gualtieri said.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336.

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