Sheriff's Finance Director Charged With DUI

BROOKSVILLE - A DUI with property damage charge was filed Monday against the sheriff's finance director.

The charge comes more than a week after Emily Vernon, 39, crashed her pickup into a road sign at the intersection of Lake Lindsey and Daly roads.

Witness statements included in Vernon's case file follow the same timeline as previously reported, but also shed new details on the July 12 incident.

For instance, Vernon reportedly asked a witness "if she hit anyone" while driving.

No one was hit or injured, but there were several close calls, investigators say. Among them were the four "wheel witnesses" that came forward last week and prompted the reopening of the case. Up until then, Vernon was not charged because no one could place her behind the wheel.

It was unknown Monday whether Vernon had retained a lawyer.

She will remain in her current job pending the outcome of the criminal case. Likewise, an internal affairs investigation has been suspended until a resolution in her case.

The entire case hinges on witness statements. In earlier interviews, DUI attorneys around the state questioned how far a DUI case would go without evidence such as a blood alcohol level, the results of field sobriety tests and the actual alcohol in the vehicle.

Still, the statements given by the witnesses match what was first reported in Hernando Today last week. All four were in a pickup truck at Daly Road when one of them screamed for the driver to "stop."
Just then, an eastbound truck on Lake Lindsey Road crossed the center lane and began a 94-foot trip down the north shoulder of the road. It struck the sign and kept going another 79 feet before coming to a stop near the Daly Road intersection, according to the crash report.

One of the witnesses, Natasha Duncan, said the pickup she was in had to back up to avoid a collision. Duncan and the others with her said that Vernon climbed out of her truck to inspect the grill and tires.
Two of the wheel witnesses later picked Vernon out of a photo pack, investigators say.

About 30 seconds later, the two cars that had been following Vernon's pickup pulled up on the scene. One couple had been trailing the pickup since U.S. 41, when the truck pulled up close behind them with its high beam headlights on.

The couple followed the truck north on U.S. 41, including a period when the truck traveled in the southbound lanes for four to five seconds, until it locked its brakes and slid onto Snow Memorial Highway. Several cars swerved off the road to avoid being hit, according to their statements.
"I then asked my husband to call 911 ... My husband was concerned for the safety of other innocent drivers," Tara Duval-Good wrote.

They briefly lost sight of the truck before coming across it moments later at the scene of the crash. Vernon was outside the truck. The crash witnesses were leaving.

Arriving deputies and witnesses said Vernon was "dancing in the road," lying face down on the ground, stumbling and that she could hardly pronounce her name.

The crash occurred at 11:24 p.m. The traffic deputy who would be responsible for a DUI arrest, Giselle Mulverhill, showed up 1 hour and 24 minutes later at 12:48 a.m., records show.

At that point, Vernon appeared "overly relaxed" and had a faint odor of alcohol on her breath. Mulverhill noticed two wine carafes in Vernon's pickup. The suspect admitted that she had gone off the road because she wasn't "paying attention."

Vernon's husband came and picked her up.

On June 26, a sheriff's dispatcher was arrested on suspicion of DUI and fired the next day. Sgt. Donna Black, spokeswoman, said that was a different circumstance because Amanda Hurley was still on her one-year probationary period and because she violated policy by smoking.