A Leesburg man who said he was on his way home from a family barbecue was pulled over in Eustis on Saturday night and charged with DUI.
At around 8:30 a.m., a Eustis police officer saw a white Buick fail to come to a complete stop at a sign before turning west from Wall Street onto Getford Road. The officer initiated a traffic stop and the vehicle pulled over in the area of Getford Road and Palmetto Street, according to the police report.
The officer spoke with the driver, 47-year-old Gregory Ogiste, of 10401 Pink Azalia Drive. Ogiste apologized for failing to stop and said he was heading home from a family barbecue. The officer observed Ogiste’s speech was slurred and difficult to understand. While Ogiste was looking in his glove box for his license, registration and insurance, his hands were trembling and he kept fumbling the paperwork. Asked if he had anything to drink that night, Ogiste said he had a few drinks at the barbecue but was OK to drive, the report said.
Ogiste at first said he didn’t want to perform field sobriety exercises but eventually agreed to. He was very unsteady as he got out of the car and almost fell down. When asked to go behind his vehicle, Ogiste walked diagonally and was unable to walk straight. He performed poorly in the exercises and was placed under arrest, according to the report.
Ogiste was taken to the Lake County Jail, where he refused to provide a breath sample for testing, despite being warned of the impact it could have in his commercial driver’s license. He spent the night in jail and was released Sunday morning on $1,000 bond. Ogiste will appear in Lake County Court at 8:30 a.m. May 4.
