PORT ST. LUCIE — Troopers for the Florida Highway Patrol charged one of their own with driving under the influence while she was on duty Tuesday, the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office said.
Lisa A. Orshowitz, 36, failed at the one-legged balance test and other sobriety exercises in the breezeway of the St. Lucie County Courthouse before troopers decided to take her into custody. She posted $350 bail at the St. Lucie County Jail.
Around 10 a.m. Tuesday, Orshowitz was traveling in her patrol car when she struck a curb and flattened a tire, according to the arrest affidavit. She stopped at the courthouse in the 200 block of Northwest Country Club Drive and used a radio to call for help, the affidavit states. A trooper said Orshowitz's words sounded slurred, which prompted him to go to the courthouse as well.
He and other troopers said Orshowitz was pale faced, had bloodshot eyes and was uneasy on her feet. She told her colleagues she took an extra sleeping pill before she went to bed about 1 a.m. Troopers said she lost her balance on the sobriety tests and had trouble touching her nose.
After a trooper placed her in the back seat of his patrol car, she threatened to have him fired and to sue FHP for false arrest, according to the affidavit.