A Mascotte man was arrested for DUI after heavily slurring his speech and ignoring an officer’s commands during a traffic stop.
An officer responded to a traffic stop to assist with a potentially impaired 46-year-old Georllin Rivas Pettay around 11:20 p.m. Friday, June 12, according to an arrest report from the Clermont Police Department. Since stopping him at U.S. Hwy. 27 and Hammock Ridge Road, law enforcement noticed his speech was sluggish, slurred and hard to understand.
As the officer approached the vehicle, he could immediately smell alcohol coming from its interior. Rivas Pettay seemed very confused and spoke very little English. However, his words were still slurred and blurred together, the report said.
He spoke to the officer for a few minutes before reaching toward his pants and putting his hands inside his groin and waist area. Understanding the language barrier, the officer clearly told him to stop reaching into his waist area. He did not listen, so the officer opened the driver’s door to grab his wrist, the report said.
Rivas Pettay refused to get out of the vehicle and did not stop reaching. At that point, other officers removed him from the vehicle and took him to the ground. He was subsequently taken to the CPD for the remainder of the DUI investigation, the report said.
Once there, he agreed to provide a breath sample but would stop blowing before one could be taken. He then agreed to participate in field sobriety exercises, claiming he had pain in his right leg. It seemed this pain was intermittent, because he would use his leg normally except when doing the exercises, the report said.
Rivas Pettay was ultimately charged with DUI, resisting without violence and refusal to submit breath testing. The native of Venezuela was booked at the Lake County Jail with bond set at $5,000.