Judge calls Bay area woman 'danger to community'

Monday, October 8, 2007

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This is Carol Wells' fifth DUI conviction.

Carol Terry has four DUI convictions and is again charged with DUI.

PINELLAS COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- As Carol Terry stood before a Pinellas County judge Tuesday, the judge asked the assistant state attorney how many previous DUI convictions Terry had.

He noted the 50-year-old had four previous convictions during the past 19 years.

Yet, Terry was still asking the judge to give her a break.

He refused.

"Can I go for a bond reduction?" she asked the judge.

"No, negative," the judge said. "It's not going to happen. You're a danger to the community. Your bonds are extremely reasonable given your prior record and will remain where they are right now."

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Deputies arrested Terry at a Seminole food store Monday afternoon. The clerk remembered ringing her up.

While Terry was inside the store buying beer, the clerk said her car started rolling into the street.

Donna Laubengeyer saw what happened from her nearby laundry business.

"And when it went up over the median and just stopped right there we said, 'Oh, my God.'"

"She tried to go out and take the car and she come back, take the beer and left," food store attendant Zulfiqur Ahmed said.

Terry's unoccupied car drifted into the median of a busy Seminole intersection.

Laubengeyer said she's surprised another car didn't hit Terry's vehicle as it rolled across three lanes.

"Traffic is very heavy on this road and we were amazed that nobody got hurt," she said.

"The vehicle was in fact unoccupied, and the deputy stepped out to try and figure out what happened and the vehicle was also running," Cecilia Barreda of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said.

Barreda said deputies also found beer in Terry's car. Terry was also cited for driving on a suspended license and for refusing to take an alcohol test. Her bond is $20,000.

"I'm going to order if you do bond out, no alcohol, for what that's worth, as a condition of your release," the judge said.

Terry has not been able to post that bond and is still in a cell at the Pinellas County jail.