Sheriff gives ATV rider who stopped for beer a surprise in checkout line

By the Times staff
Published September 14, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Hear the radio call Audio report Thomas Hoffman, 22, faces charges of DUI and resisting arrest. His license was suspended one year.

When Thomas Jerry Hoffmann, 22, got arrested on a DUI charge Saturday night, he told the officer he knew all kinds of lawmen in east Hillsborough County.

The guy handcuffing wasn't impressed. He was none other than Sheriff David Gee.

Gee had been driving on Lithia-Pinecrest Road about 8:16 p.m. when he noticed someone in a yellow Yamaha all-terrain vehicle driving 70 to 75 miles per hour on a road with a speed limit of 45, spokesman J.D. Callaway said.

The driver wove in and out of traffic and nearly caused a crash, Callaway said.

The sheriff, in an unmarked black Dodge Charger, followed the vehicle to the On the Run convenience store, where the driver, identified as Hoffman, was buying a 12-pack of beer.

"The guy gets mouthy and belligerent, and the sheriff has to utilize some of his arrest techniques he learned many years ago," Callaway said.

Callaway said the man refused to submit to a breath test, but the sheriff smelled alcohol and saw other physical signs of intoxication.

Hoffmann, of 2536 Nichols Road in Lithia, was charged with DUI and resisting arrest. His license was automatically suspended one year for refusing the breath test, according to a report of his driving record by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Hoffmann was arrested for DUI in a 2004 reckless driving case, according to a report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. That charge was reduced, and he was sentenced to probation.

In February, he was sentenced to 18 months probation after pleading guilty to aggravated battery from an arrest in June 2006, according to the FDLE.

[Last modified September 13, 2007, 23:57:44]