Ten years of revocations, served as five
Tiger Woods walked into the Martin County Courthouse on Wednesday morning and walked out unable to drive for the next five years.
Woods pleaded no contest to willful, wanton and reckless driving and to refusing to submit to a urine test. In exchange, prosecutors dropped the DUI charge that had hung over him since March. Judge Darren Steele handed down two five-year revocations of his driver’s license and a $1,000 fine, then made clear the two would run at the same time rather than back to back.
Steele left no room for interpretation. “There are no exceptions. If you were to drive for any reason … you go immediately back to jail,” the judge told him during the hearing.
Try it for $0.99.
What happened on Jupiter Island
The case goes back to March 27. Deputies responding to a crash on a beachfront road on Jupiter Island found Woods’ vehicle on its roof after he clipped a truck. Officers at the scene suspected he was driving impaired. They also reported finding two pain-killing pills in his pocket. Woods told them he had been looking down at his phone and changing the radio station when he hit the truck. Neither driver was hurt.
Woods, 50, had initially pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor DUI with property damage and to refusal to submit to a lawful test. His attorney, Douglas Duncan, filed notice of the change-of-plea hearing on Tuesday, pulling the appearance forward from a status hearing that had been set for Sept. 8. Florida requires defendants to appear in person for such hearings. Woods did, accompanied by girlfriend Vanessa Trump.
The same lawyer, a familiar outcome
Duncan has been here before with this client. He represented Woods in 2017, when a DUI charge was reduced to reckless driving. In April, the same attorney persuaded Steele to allow Woods to travel outside the country to receive what was described in court as comprehensive inpatient treatment following the March arrest.
Wednesday closed the criminal side of the matter. The driving ban does not lift until 2031.
Discover the rest of our Golf news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply