'Baby' talk doesn't help Zephyrhills woman charged with DUI

A little too much "baby" talk didn't help a 52-year-old Zephyrhills woman who was pulled over Sunday night by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper on suspicion of DUI.

Now, Lola Brooks Schofield, of 36649 Cord St., is charged with driving under the influence.

During her arrest, she repeatedly referred to a trooper as "baby," a report states.

About 11:15 p.m. Sunday, an auxiliary trooper on his way home noticed a car swerving west on Clinton Avenue and nearly driving off the road several times. After getting permission from a sergeant, he pulled over the vehicle at Fort King Road, south of Bozeman Road, and then an on-duty trooper arrived.

As soon as Schofield stepped out of her vehicle, she lost her balance and fell against the car, a report states. A moment later, she tried to walk and instead staggered, nearly falling, and the trooper and a deputy who arrived at the scene had to catch her several times, the report states.

She reeked of alcohol and slurred her words, the trooper said.

"The defendant began to have a conversation with an imaginary passenger in her vehicle, which was unoccupied," Trooper M.A. Hollis Jr. wrote in his report.

When asked whether she would perform field sobriety tests, she stated, "I will try, baby," the report states

A moment later, Schofield fell, the report states.

"I better not do these; I am too drunk," the report quotes her as saying.

She was then placed under arrest.

According to the report, when the trooper asked whether he could take a breath sample, she said, "I don't think that would be a good idea for me, baby."

The trooper told her it was a "yes or no" question, the report states.

"No, baby," she reportedly told him.

She admitted drinking with friends at the Happy Days bar, where she had four glasses of white zinfandel and two shots of "something strong," according to the report. She also told the trooper she took some pills a friend gave her but didn't know what they were.

While Hollis was taking Schofield to the Land O' Lakes Jail for booking, she began talking to herself about "her babies," the trooper wrote. Then she became violent and started pounding on the Plexiglas partition in the patrol car and started yelling about someone molesting her babies and was upset that the trooper wasn't going to do anything about it, the report states. Schofield used profanity when addressing the trooper, according to the report. She then unsuccessfully attempted to kick out the windows in the cruiser, Hollis wrote.

Once at the jail, deputies helped the trooper get Schofield out of his cruiser.