Jennifer Jimenez (driver) and Christina Alcalde (passenger) during a traffic stop in Clermont, Florida (Clermont Police Department).
Two Florida school principals are accused of drunk driving the same car just hours apart, with one allegedly getting pulled over while driving to post bond for her friend who had been charged with the initial DUI.
Jennifer Jimenez and Christina Alcalde were each charged with driving under the influence and refusing to submit to a sobriety test following separate traffic stops in the early morning hours of July 5, court records show.
Jimenez was arrested first at about 2:17 a.m. while Alcalde, the owner of the car they both drove, was arrested less than three hours later after police say she returned to the area of the traffic stop and retrieved her car.
According to a probable cause affidavit for Jimenez, an officer spotted the white Jeep Cherokee swerving repeatedly into oncoming lanes while traveling on Minnehaha Avenue shortly after 2 a.m. The officer also reported seeing the SUV strike a curb before driving entirely into the northbound lane while traveling southbound, prompting a traffic stop.
When the officer approached, Alcalde identified herself as the vehicle's owner while telling police that she and Jimenez "were principals in the area."
Police said Jimenez struggled to retrieve identification, instead attempting to pull up a photograph of her driver's license on her cellphone after Alcalde said it was stored in her purse. The affidavit says Jimenez moved slowly, dropped the phone, had delayed reactions, blinked "really slow" and smelled of alcohol.
Asked whether she had been drinking, Jimenez allegedly replied, "Yes." She also told the officer she was coming from "a party with her children."
After asking Jimenez to step out of the vehicle, the officer wrote that she walked slowly, appeared unsteady, staggered and swayed while standing. When the officer attempted to explain field sobriety exercises, Jimenez allegedly interrupted twice before ultimately declining to participate.
"I attempted to explain that I wanted her to perform Field Sobriety Exercises to dispel my concern that her normal faculties were impaired," the officer wrote. Jimenez said she understood but "did not want to conduct Field Sobriety Exercises."
She was arrested on suspicion of DUI and cited for refusing to submit to testing.
While assisting at the scene, another officer interacted with Alcalde and concluded she also appeared heavily intoxicated, according to the second affidavit.
Without being asked, Alcalde allegedly volunteered that she and Jimenez had been at the restaurant La Jibarita de Puerto Rico, where she said she and Jimenez "only had two drinks." However, she added that the bartenders there "poured heavy."
The officer wrote that Alcalde smelled of alcohol, slurred her speech, cried throughout the encounter and was so unsteady that he remained within arm's reach while she walked to a rideshare vehicle so that he could make sure she got in safely. Rather than towing the Jeep, officers parked it in a nearby lot with her permission because she was not fit to drive.
About 5 a.m., however, officers learned the Jeep was back on the road. An officer found the SUV traveling on State Road 50 and recognized Alcalde behind the wheel. Based on her condition less than three hours earlier, he initiated another traffic stop.
When asked why she was driving, Alcalde allegedly responded that she was worried about her friend.
"I understand," she replied after the officer told her she should not have been driving, explaining she was trying to post bond for Jimenez.
"Like, I'm not meaning to do anything wrong," she told the officer, Daytona Beach ABC affiliate WESH reported.
Police said Alcalde again smelled of alcohol, remained emotional, cried repeatedly and agreed to perform field sobriety exercises before she was arrested at about 5:27 a.m.
At the police department, Alcalde allegedly refused to submit to a breath test after being advised of Florida's implied consent law. During that process, a certified breath-test operator reported that she admitted consuming three drinks that night.
Both arrests were captured on patrol vehicle cameras and body-worn cameras, according to the affidavits.