OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — We now has more insight into why an Osceola County Deputy wasn’t charged with DUI, after he crashed into a state trooper on the Florida Turnpike. It happened eight months ago near the intersection of 192 and 441 in Kissimmee.
Only Channel 9 Anchor Daralene Jones obtained a copy of the Inspector General investigation, confirming that the DUI investigation appears to have been botched by the state.
Investigators determined Florida Highway Patrol Sergeant Carlos Alves-Ferrer conducted an improper DUI investigation, but also arrested Osceola County Deputy Hunter Perkins for DUI without probable cause. And Florida Highway Patrol Captain Elias Sanchez was also sustained for instructing a subordinate to make an unlawful arrest for DUI, all of it stemming from the time lapsed during what should’ve been a DUI investigation from the start.
And the report also raises questions about why the Osceola County sheriff’s office under the leadership of then Sheriff Marcos Lopez and his second in command didn’t move forward with an internal investigation, instead they hid behind the fact an assistant state attorney dropped the case.
Osceola County deputy Hunter Perkins was off-duty and admitted he had been drinking with his girlfriend, who told investigators she had just taken off her shirt before they crashed, hitting a state trooper parked with his blue lights on in a construction zone.
We asked longtime DUI attorney Kendell Ali what typically happens immediately following a crash scene involving suspicion of DUI. “Normally, the first thing they do is ask them for field sobriety exercises, Ali told Jones.
That’s not what happened. Several law enforcement officers immediately told the responding Florida Highway Patrol Sergeant Carlos Alves-Ferrer that Deputy Perkins appeared impaired and smelled of alcohol. The FHP Sergeant said he smelled nothing, and described Perkins’ field sobriety tests, conducted at 1:00 a.m., more than three hours after the crash as “perfect.” The investigators also noted that the Sergeant paused his mobile video recorder for 25 minutes during the investigation.
Deputy Hunter Perkins wasn’t arrested until about 2 a.m. and initially refused to provide a blood sample, but changed his mind about 20 minutes later. He was taken to the hospital, and by the time he got to the breath test center, about 10 hours after he crashed into that state trooper, Deputy Perkins’ blood alcohol level was point-008.”Your breath alcohol and blood alcohol content 10 hours later are not particularly relevant. They want to try to get the sample as close to the time that the driving occurred,” Ali stated.
In a statement, the Interim Osceola County Sheriff said:
“This traffic crash involving Deputy Perkins occurred on January 28, 2025, during the previous administration. The decision not to complete an internal investigation into this crash was made by the previous command staff.
I was appointed as Sheriff in June and came into a chaotic situation. I was eventually made aware of several incidents that occurred in the past year that were not internally investigated.
By the time we looked at this incident, we were unable to open an investigation into Deputy Perkins off-duty traffic crash, because 180 days had passed (police officer bill of rights). We opened other internal investigations that met the specifications for review and have taken the appropriate discipline actions up to dismissal.”
We are still waiting to hear back from FHP on whether the two FHP troopers were disciplined.
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