Dan Werner
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Another month, another UF basketball player caught on tape.
This time, it's former University of Florida basketball star Dan Werner. He was arrested for DUI, even though he was under Florida's legal limit.
First Coast News obtained the video of Werner's DUI arrest, captured by a deputy's dashcam camera. We also reviewed the documents relating to the case.
RAW VIDEO: 20-MINUTE CLIP OF THE DUI ARREST BY CLICKING HERE
First Coast News has learned the State Attorney's Office has offered Werner a plea deal: one year supervised probation, a $500 fine, six months license suspension, DUI school and 50 hours of community service.
Jacksonville DUI lawyer Eric Friday reviewed the documents and video at the request of First Coast News and said the plea offer meets Florida's minimum mandatory sentence guidelines for a DUI, except for double the amount of probation.
Friday thinks Werner's defense will try to get the charge reduced from DUI to reckless driving, with the same penalties.
Werner was arrested last month for DUI. He was pulled over in Alachua County and blew a .07 and .065. Florida's legal limit is .08, but deputies say he performed poorly in field sobriety exercises.
"You can be charged with DUI even if you're below .08. It just makes the state's job a little bit harder at trial. But yes, you can be charged with DUI with less than a .08 and you can be convicted with less than a .08," Friday said.
Werner played four years for the UF basketball team. He now plays overseas in Italy and Hungary.
After looking at the video, Friday thinks Werner performed many of the tasks well. He says Werner didn't stumble when bending over to tie his shoes.
Friday also says there are some inconsistencies in the police report and the dashcam video. One of the DUI police reports notes Werner failed to point forward before and after the finger-to-nose test. But the dashcam video shows he did point forward each time.
One officer noted Werner looked "flushed" while another officer says his face appeared normal.
But Friday points out Werner did walk too many steps during the walk-and-turn test.
"There's obviously some inconsistencies between what the officers' subjective observations of what he thought he saw and what actually occurrs on the video," Friday said.
The video was obtained from the state attorney's office in Gainesville through a public records request. The video clip provided does not include audio from outside the patrol car.
First Coast News