Deputies release video of Florida woman doing ‘Irish folk dance’ during sobriety test
By: A sheriff’s office in Florida has released footage of a woman who performed “multiple ballet and Irish folk dance moves” during a roadside field sobriety test in late April.
Deputies with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said the suspect, identified as a 38-year-old woman from Madeira Beach, had rear-ended another vehicle roughly one mile from her home on April 27. When deputies arrived, they said the driver showed several signs of impairment including bloodshot, glassy eyes and dilated pupils.
When asked to walk the line, the woman “struggled to follow instructions, and was unsteady on her feet almost falling,” arrest documents said.
In the newly released video, the deputy administering a field sobriety test can be heard giving the suspect instructions. At one point, the woman responds, “Yeah, well, you sound like my ballet coach.”
The woman then took five steps along the line before transitioning into a ballet sequence.
“That wasn’t the exercise that I was demonstrating,” the deputy says.
Without responding, the woman then leaps into what appears to be an attempt at folk dancing mixed with ballet.
The sheriff’s office said the 38-year-old woman later refused testing, which marked the second time she refused to test after a separate incident in Pinellas County on March 3, 2019.
Deputies also said they found a white foam cup containing a light yellow liquid that smelled of alcohol in the center cup holder of the woman’s car.
She was charged with driving under the influence with property damage and refusal to submit to testing.