POLK COUNTY, FL. – During the early morning hours on Wednesday, a PCSO deputy sheriff who resigned immediately upon his arrest was arrested by Polk County Sheriff’s Office for one count of DUI.
According to the affidavit, around 1:45 a.m., Lakeland Police Officers were conducting a traffic stop of a female driver who was observed stopped in her car in the middle of South Florida Avenue near Orange Street “burning out” her tires.
She then drove westbound onto East Lemon Street and LPD conducted a traffic stop in the parking lot of Tropical Smoothie.
While talking to the driver, 22-year-old Jalynn Guinn, LPD Officers observed another vehicle pull into an adjacent parking lot, and the Hispanic male driver, later identified as 27-year-old Michael Gonzalez-Lauzan of Lakeland, approached.
They asked Gonzalez-Lauzan to stop and wait for them to talk with him, but he continued walking towards them and then told them that he was an off-duty Polk County Deputy.
Investigators say he was agitated and becoming irate, and the officers could smell the odor of alcohol on him. They contacted PCSO to respond. Meanwhile, Guinn also identified herself as an off-duty Polk County Deputy.
When deputies arrived, they talked to Gonzalez-Lauzan, who told them that he and Guinn were leaving Linksters bar when he saw LPD pull her over. He said he came over to tell her to turn her car off, and then backed off after they shined a flashlight in his eyes.
Deputies conducted field sobriety tests with Gonzalez-Lauzan, during which he exhibited several signs of being impaired. Deputies arrested him and transported him to the Sheriff’s Processing Center, where he provided two breath samples of 0.164/210L and 0.160/201L (the legal limit is 0.08/210L).
Gonzalez-Lauzan was booked into the Polk County Jail for DUI and was released after posting a $500 bond.
He resigned from PCSO effectively immediately upon his arrest. Had he not resigned, he would have been terminated. He was hired as a deputy sheriff in 2019.
Guinn is being issued a traffic citation by Lakeland P.D. for careless driving, and has also resigned from PCSO. She was hired in January 2021.
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Getting arrested for DUI is bad enough today with all the strict new Florida DUI penalties for regular citizen drivers who have to fight DUI charges in court. The fact police officers are all too often getting charged with DUI while purposely violating numerous traffic laws, shows what hypocrites so many officers are in abusing their position of authority for law enforcement.
There needs to be far better screening processes and performance reviews for police officers to stop the frequent occurrences of police officers getting charged with DUI and other misconduct.
Reference: https://fightduicharges.com/florida/what-to-do-how-to-fight-to-beat-a-dui-in-florida/