A UF alumnus called 911 drunk while driving early Sunday, and an operator told him to pull over, Gainesville Police said.
Juan Pablo Compte, 21, called police dispatch at about 3 a.m. as he was driving home from work, according to an arrest report. He told a call taker his passenger side tires were flat and his hazard lights were on, police said.
The call taker told Compte to pull over, but instead he drove straight toward a Gainesville Fire Rescue truck, which was responding to a call nearby, according to the report.
The truck had to reverse down Southwest First Avenue because Compte’s car was blocking the path to its patient, according to the report.
A responding officer found Compte in front of his apartment nearby and talked to him, according to the report.
Compte told police he had a Jai Alai beer and a “double whiskey ginger” at work, and that he had smoked marijuana in his car, as he regularly does before his shift at The Top restaurant, according to the report. Police found a metal marijuana grinder and multi-colored glass pipe in his car, according to the report.
He performed poorly on field sobriety tests, and his blood alcohol content was .179 and .185, which is more than twice the legal limit, police said.
Compte was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence. He was taken to the Alachua County Jail, where he was released Sunday afternoon on his own recognizance.
He graduated from UF in June 2017 with a bachelor's of arts in criminology, UF spokesperson John Hines wrote in an email.
He declined to comment.
Contact Robert Lewis at rlewis@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @Lewis__Robert.
Juan Pablo Compte
