Details are beginning to emerge from Ron Book’s DUI arrest Sunday Night and as more information comes to us, we will continue to share it. Here’s what we know so far.

Ron Book was arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol on Sunday February 24, 2019. He has been charged with (1) Dui Alcohol Or Drugs 1St, (2) Dui W/Dam To Prop Or Pers, and (3) Refuse To Submit To Dui T. His case has been assigned Case Number 19002107MM10A.

His mugshot, showing Book dressed in jail scrubs is below:

Ultra-Powerful South Florida Lobbyist Ron Book Arrested for Alleged DUI

Ordinarily the case would be prosecuted by the Broward State Attorney’s office, but State Attorney, Michael J. Satz, is a personal friend of Book’s so it’s likely that another prosecutor will be brought in. His daughter, State Senator Lauren Book also represents the jurisdiction in which the arrest took place.

According to the arrest report, FHP responded to a rollover accident that night involving a Lamborghini (driven by Book) and a black Ford Focus (driven by Deryk Rivera). Rivera’s was the vehicle that rolled over.

When the reporting FHP officer, Trooper Corominas arrived at the scene he was advised by Sargent Castano that there was an odor of alcohol and slurred speech from the driver of a Lamborghini. The EMS supervisors that arrived on scene also reported the odor of alcohol coming from Book. As soon as the reporting Trooper began speaking with Book, he also detected the odor of Alcohol.

The Trooper then informed Book that he was there to conduct a DUI investigation and performed a field sobriety test. Book reportedly displayed 6 out of 6 clues for DUI on the first test and began the second test (walking heel to toe in a straight line) twice before being prompted to begin. When he started, he repeatedly lost balance and was in danger of falling down. After being placed under arrest he was brought to the County’s DUI intake where he refused the breathalyzer.

Book was kept overnight and released Monday on $1500 bond. He denied driving drunk and gave cancer medication as an excuse, but that does not explain the smell of alcohol detected by three individual responders. It also does not explain his refusal to take a breathalyzer exam. If he was not drunk, why not take the test to use as exculpatory evidence?

There’s another inconsistency in Book’s story. Book claimed the accident was caused by Rivera. Book blamed the accident on Rivera claiming he had him off, but FHP noted that the damage to Book’s car was inconsistent with his story and that claim was further refuted by an interview with the other driver in the below news story.

Here is an interview with the driver of the other vehicle, disputing Book’s claim that he was cut off:

This is not Book’s first arrest. In 1986, he was charged with insurance fraud and in the mid-90’s for making illegal campaign contributions. Let’s see how well his “political contributions” pay off and how quickly this arrest gets swept under the rug

We will continue to update this developing story as additional information comes to us. In the meantime, here are some statistics about drunk driving in case you wanted to contact your legislator to see what they intend to do about this public safety issue.

  • THIS IS NOT THEIR FIRST TIME: An average drunk driver has driven drunk over 80 times before first arrest.
    -Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Crime in the United States: 2014” https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014THI/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/table-29 Incidence data: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Alcohol-Impaired Driving Among Adults — United States, 2012.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. August 7, 2015 / 64(30);814-817. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6430a2.htm
  • IF IT SAVES ONE CHILD IT WILL BE WORTH IT: In 2017, 220 children aged 14 and younger were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes involving alcohol-impaired-drivers.
    -NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts 2017 https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812630
  •  

    IT’S NOT A MATTER OF IF, BUT WHEN THEY WILL RE-OFFEND: About one-third of all drivers arrested or convicted of drunk driving are repeat offenders.
    -Fell, Jim. “Repeat DWI Offenders in the United States.” Washington, DC: National Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Traffic Tech No. 85, February 1995.

  • THIS IS A PUBLIC SAFETY CRISIS: Every day in America, another 30 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes. That’s one person every 48 minutes.
    -National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Traffic Safety Facts 2017: Alcohol-Impaired Driving.” Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2018. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812630
  • IT IS GROSSLY UNDER-REPORTED: Each day, people drive drunk more than 300,000 times, but only about 2800 are arrested
    -Arrest data: Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Crime in the United States: 2015” https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s.-2015/tables/table-29Incidence data: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Alcohol-Impaired Driving Among Adults — United States, 2012.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. August 7, 2015 / 64(30);814-817. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6430a2.

 

 

Share This

Let's Spread Truth

Share this post!