A Villager has been sentenced in a criminal case stemming from injuries suffered by his wife in a fall from a golf cart.
John Charles Gardner, 66, who lives in the Hickory Grove Villas in the Village of Sunset Pointe, pleaded no contest last week in Sumter County Court to a charge of driving under the influence. He will lose his driver’s license for six months, has been placed on probation for one year and has been ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.
Gardner was driving a Yamaha golf cart at about 8 p.m. Dec. 27 at Bailey Trail and Sunset Ridge Drive when his wife “fell from his golf cart while it was in motion,” according to an arrest report from the Florida Highway Patrol. She hit a curb when she fell from the golf cart. She was transported by ambulance to UF Health-The Villages Hospital.
Her husband was “showing signs of possible impairment,” the report said. He admitted he had been “drinking at dinner” and two containers were found in the center console of the golf cart, “both of which contained a liquid” which had an “odor of an alcoholic beverage,” the trooper noted in the report.
Gardner “performed poorly” in field sobriety exercises. He provided breath samples that registered .098 and .100 blood alcohol content.
