Teh One Who Knocks
07-21-2011, 07:15 PM
By Jessica Vander Velde, St Petersburg Times Staff Writer
BRANDON — Donald Leet told deputies he had a glass of wine with dinner and his driver's license was suspended.
His girlfriend's 11-year-old daughter said he was teaching her to drive.
Whatever the reason, it ended badly when the girl crashed her mother's sport utility vehicle into a water pipe at First Baptist Church of Brandon about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office reported.
When deputies arrived, the daughter and a 7-year-old girl who was in the back seat were screaming and crying as they climbed out of the driver's window, water shooting about 50 feet into the air, a report states.
No one was badly injured, deputies said.
At the scene, Leet, 37, told deputies he had allowed the girl to drive. He said he had a suspended license and had one glass of wine but was not intoxicated, the report states.
"You are going to make me lose my job," he told deputies, the report states, adding: "Why don't you arrest a rapist or murderer instead of me. You're an illiterate Southerner. You don't know anything. You only have a high school diploma. You're dumb."
Deputies arrested Leet of Apollo Beach on two counts of child neglect. He was released early Wednesday on $4,000 bail.
BRANDON — Donald Leet told deputies he had a glass of wine with dinner and his driver's license was suspended.
His girlfriend's 11-year-old daughter said he was teaching her to drive.
Whatever the reason, it ended badly when the girl crashed her mother's sport utility vehicle into a water pipe at First Baptist Church of Brandon about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office reported.
When deputies arrived, the daughter and a 7-year-old girl who was in the back seat were screaming and crying as they climbed out of the driver's window, water shooting about 50 feet into the air, a report states.
No one was badly injured, deputies said.
At the scene, Leet, 37, told deputies he had allowed the girl to drive. He said he had a suspended license and had one glass of wine but was not intoxicated, the report states.
"You are going to make me lose my job," he told deputies, the report states, adding: "Why don't you arrest a rapist or murderer instead of me. You're an illiterate Southerner. You don't know anything. You only have a high school diploma. You're dumb."
Deputies arrested Leet of Apollo Beach on two counts of child neglect. He was released early Wednesday on $4,000 bail.