A video released by the Florida Highway Patrol on Friday revealed more details about Mayor Craig Lowe’s March 21 driving under the influence arrest.
The video, recorded on Trooper Javon Murphy’s dashboard camera, chronicles the arrest from when Murphy showed up to the scene just after 4 a.m. until he and Lowe arrived at the Alachua County Jail at about 6 a.m.
In the beginning, Murphy is heard speaking with Alachua County Sheriff’s Office deputies at the scene of the crash, located near the intersection of Northeast 156th Avenue and Northeast 21st Street.
Murphy read Lowe his Miranda rights, then asked him questions about the events leading up to the crash. Lowe said he was driving toward the intersection and fell asleep. He’d been awake since 6 a.m. the day before, he said.
As he talked to Lowe, Murphy could be heard saying, “I can smell a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from your breath.”
Murphy started asking Lowe if he was drinking earlier. Lowe replied, saying he had consumed three 12-ounce bottles of beer in Gainesville between about 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. He added that he was on his way to La Crosse from Monteocha.
Murphy then asked how intoxicated Lowe felt, to which he replied, “I’m not intoxicated at all.”
When Murphy asked Lowe why he didn’t call police after the crash, Lowe answered that he “was fine and [he] didn’t know how long it would take the tow truck to get [there].”
Starting at the 4:40 a.m. mark in the video, Lowe is seen losing his balance, stumbling and having trouble following directions during a field sobriety test. After the test, Murphy arrested Lowe on DUI and property damage charges.
The last scene of the video shows Murphy’s car driving into the jail parking lot. Murphy explained to Lowe he could either submit to a Breathalyzer test or have his license suspended for a year.
According to an FHP crash report, Lowe took a breath test, and his blood alcohol content levels were determined to be .069 and .061 four hours after the crash.
Lowe entered a formal written plea of not guilty in his case Thursday. He is scheduled for a pretrial conference April 24, according to the Alachua County Clerk of the Court’s website.
Lowe is running for re-election against Ed Braddy in the April 16 mayoral runoff election.
Contact Kathryn Varn at kvarn@alligator.org.
