Fla. Man Picks Absolute Worst Time to Hit Deputy's Car

While allegedly drunk, at a pot bust
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 12, 2015 1:32 PM CDT
Fla. Man Picks Absolute Worst Time to Hit Deputy's Car
Mugshot for Yasiel Martinez.   (Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, via Tampa Tribune)

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and in the wrong state of mind. Deputies and aviation unit members from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office had just made a head-turning find in a mangrove patch near Tampa, Fla., Sunday night when a second head-turning thing happened. Undercover officers were in the process of removing almost 70 (yes, 70) mature pot plants—weighing 77 pounds and worth a street value of nearly $115,000—near a Courtney Campbell Causeway boat ramp when there was a crash, WFLA reports.

The source of the crash: a 2007 Chevy Tahoe navigated by 25-year-old Yasiel Martinez, who allegedly rammed into the back of one of the deputy's vehicles with the deputy still inside it, the Tampa Tribune reports. Which maybe would have been treated as a simple accident, save for the fact that Martinez appeared to be drunk, investigators say. Two BAC tests administered to Martinez at the scene turned up readings of .143 and .144, authorities say, and Martinez was charged with driving under the influence and booked at a local jail. He was released on $500 bail Monday morning. There's no word on how the deputy who was inside the vehicle is doing. (A Wisconsin woman pulled over for DUI was accused of having sex in the back of a squad car with her partner.)

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