SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A Miami woman faces a felon charge of driving under the influence after, authorities said, she struck a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputy with her car, causing serious injuries that required multiple surgeries.
Janice Garcia, 28, turned herself in on Sunday and was charged with DUI causing serious bodily injury, a third-degree felony.
According to the arrest affidavit, MDSO deputies were on uniform patrol in the Kendall neighborhood, just after 3:30 a.m. om April 11.
That’s when, officials said, Garcia’s blue 2020 Mazda, traveling northbound on Southwest 99th Court near 85th Street, struck the deputy as he walked around the rear of a marked patrol vehicle.
The impact launched the victim into the air. Fire rescue transported him to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital as a trauma alert.
The deputy suffered a spinal compression fracture and multiple broken bones, including a fractured fibula that required surgery, as well as numerous soft tissue injuries.
A member of the Sheriff’s Impaired Driving Enforcement Squad responded and made contact with Garcia, who was described as visibly distraught, with slurred speech, bloodshot eyes and the odor of alcohol on her breath.
Garcia agreed to field sobriety testing and voluntarily submitted to a blood draw. Toxicology results confirmed her blood alcohol level was nearly twice Florida’s legal limit of 0.08.
Garcia surrendered to authorities at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in West Miami-Dade and is being held there pending a bond hearing.
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