A Villager who admitted to taking Oxycodone and then driving onto a golf cart path, caught a break last week in Sumter County Court.
Eric Wayne Singletary, 53, had been arrested March 12 on a charge of driving under the influence after an off-duty University of Central Florida police officer witnessed his Buick driving onto the golf cart path along El Camino Real. The university police officer, who was driving his personal vehicle, drove behind the gray Buick and began honking his horn and flashing his lights, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. The Buick continued on for about a half mile before coming to a stop when it reached the Morse Circle. When the off-duty officer approached the vehicle, Singletary attempted to drive away. The officer put the car into “park” and removed the driver from the vehicle.
A Sumter County sheriff’s deputy who arrived on the scene asked the Village of Country Club Hills resident if he had been drinking. Singletary said he had not, but admitted to taking Oxycodone. He said he was distraught over the recent death of his mother. He had trouble standing and leaned against his car.
Last week in Sumter County Court, Singletary pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of reckless driving. He has been placed on probation for six months and ordered to perform 30 hours of community service.
He was represented by Cary Rada, who has negotiated anger management for a Village of Glenbrook woman charged with deliberately driving into a McDonald’s sign, represented a Villages’ couple’s son after his fifth DUI arrest and won an acquittal for a grandson arrested in an attack at a postal station in The Villages.
