Nancy Alexander's rented vehicle clipped a parked SUV, doing $4,000 in damage, police say.
By LEANORA MINAI
Published June 3, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Local TV and radio personality Nancy Alexander was cited for careless driving Monday after she hit a parked car and left the accident scene, police said.
Alexander, 41, a reporter for "Out There," a feature on WTVT-Ch. 13, and morning DJ on WMTX-FM 100.7, was driving a 2004 GMC Yukon when she pulled into a parking space and clipped an unoccupied 2001 Dodge Durango, causing $4,000 in damage, police said.
The accident happened at 5:23 p.m. in the Walgreens parking lot at 5400 Dr. Martin Luther King St. N. No one was injured.
A witness who recognized Alexander told police that Alexander got out of her rented Yukon, looked at the trucks and "all around the parking lot," then drove away, according to a police report.
Officer Kathy Miller, who investigated the incident as a hit and run, interviewed Alexander at her St. Petersburg home shortly after the crash.
Miller said in her report that she smelled alcohol on Alexander's breath. Alexander told Miller that after she got home, she was "scared, so she had a glass of wine," the report said.
In 2002, Alexander was charged with driving under the influence after she drove off Interstate 275 into a road construction area. She registered a blood-alcohol content of 0.183 percent, more than twice the level at which a driver is presumed impaired. She pleaded no contest and was adjudicated guilty.
Alexander was not given a field sobriety or blood-alcohol test at her home after Monday's accident because there was no indication that she was impaired, said Bill Proffitt, police spokesman.
Police said that at first, Alexander denied being involved in the accident and blamed her sister.
Miller, the investigating officer, was outside filling out paperwork when Alexander came out, crying, and told the officer that she was driving the Yukon after all. The Yukon sustained $1,000 in damage.
"I advised her that she could go to jail for the hit and run and lying about the accident and she (stated) that she knew," Miller said in the report.
Proffitt said police did not charge Alexander with hit and run because the unidentified witness who recognized her did not want to cooperate.
Adrian Blidar, 34, the owner of the Dodge Durango, is an acquaintance and neighbor of Alexander's. He said he was inside Walgreens with his family at the time of the accident and declined to comment further.
"It's just a matter between neighbors," he said.
Alexander and Philip Metlin, vice president of news for WTVT-Ch. 13, did not return calls.
- Leanora Minai can be reached at minai@sptimes.com or 727 893-8406.
