Attorney says deputy should be convicted of DUI

Deputy crashed cruiser & had high levels of narcotics

Former Deputy Patrick Milosevic

Viewers claiming a double standard after a fired Lee County Sheriff's deputy accused of driving under the influence in a patrol car gets let off the hook in court! A Southwest Florida attorney says the State Attorney should've prosecuted him. Four in your Corner investigator Mike Mason also getting his hands on the dash-cam video so you can decide for yourself if the fired deputy got off too easy.

Tonight we also have the 9-1-1 calls that came in that night. Several witnesses who watched in shock as this deputy crashed his cruiser. Many feel this deputy got a special favor and it's simply not fair.

On May 9th, several people called 911 to report a Lee County deputy driving erratically on Bayshore Road in North Fort Myers.

Witness: "He was swerving in and out of cars. He was smoking a cigarette and was on the computer and he, I don't know, he didn't look right."

Deputy Patrick Milosevic was driving his patrol car, witnesses watched him then pull into this Walmart and slam in to a parked pickup truck.

Witness: "He just hit a truck.”
Operator: "He did? He did hit it?
Witness: "Yeah, he hit it."

Bill Sumner was one of those witnesses.

Bill Sumner: "He just continued to hit all the way down the side of that little pickup truck."
Mike: "He swiped that truck."
Bill Sumner: "All the way."

Fox 4 obtained this dash-cam video from Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) showing its DUI investigation of Milosevic. Reports show Milosevic failed the field sobriety tests and a urine screen showed he had taken high levels of prescription narcotics but, despite this, Milosevic was never convicted of DUI.

Bill Sumner: "To me that shows double standard."

Janese Caruthers: "It's always been understand there's a double standard for officers, it shouldn't be that way."

Attorney Janese Caruthers says there was more than enough evidence to convict Milosevic. The State Attorney's Office disagrees saying the tests that showed the officer had taken narcotics were part of the Sheriff's internal investigation and, therefore, not admissible in court. Records show Milosevic refused to take a 2nd urine test which could have been used in court against him and he refused to have a drug recognition expert examine him.

But Caruthers, who worked as a public defender for 4 years, says Milosevic should still have been prosecuted for DUI, reckless driving, or at least careless driving.
S
Janese Caruthers: "To say that it wasn't enough to go forward and prosecute him, I believe that was absolutely the wrong call."

Dash-cam video shows Milosevic failing the field sobriety tests and then being arrested for DUI.

FHP Trooper: "You're under arrest for DUI."

Some say this evidence is compelling enough and Milosevic got a lucky break.

Janese Caruthers: "The fact that the state chose not to prosecute here when they had tons of evidence that they could have presented in court, it's just insane."

Toxicology tests show he had high levels of narcotics in his system and didn't even have a prescription for them. Although the case against Milosevic was dropped, he was fired from the Sheriff's Office.



See full story on Fox 4: http://www.fox4now.com/news/local/162972166.html