Lakewood Ranch attorney may have been high on bath salts, cops say

A Lakewood Ranch attorney was arrested Saturday in Gulf Breeze, in the Florida Panhandle, on multiple charges including reckless driving and fleeing to elude law enforcement.

A police official said Terra Neshonda Carroll may have been high on bath salts at the time of the incident, according to WEAR-TV in Pensacola.

The TV station reported that green flakes, a white powdery substance and “bath salt jars” were seized from Carroll’s vehicle and sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab for testing.

Carroll, 35, was arrested at 1:35 p.m. Saturday in Gulf Breeze. According to a Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office report, shortly after 1 p.m. deputies received a complaint about a reckless driver in a white Jeep traveling westbound on U.S. Highway 98 in Navarre at the intersection with Edgewood Drive. Deputies said it was reported the vehicle was passing on the right hand side, in the grass, and right turn lanes. According to the report, a sergeant with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office tried to conduct a traffic stop on the vehicle, but the driver did not stop. The sergeant reported the driver almost hit a pedestrian near the intersection at Green Briar Parkway.

Another deputy reported seeing the Jeep “all over the road, passing other vehicles on the right hand side in the grass and right turn lanes,” according to the report. At that point, the driver was now traveling at 70 mph. Deputies said the driver then began to weave through traffic, going 80 mph in a 45 mph zone.

“As we approached the Gulf Breeze City limits the traffic became extremely heavy. Gulf Breeze City Patrol units had joined the attempt to stop the vehicle,” the report states. “The vehicle continued to weave through other vehicles until we were in the school zone at which time the vehicle moved over into oncoming traffic.”

Shortly after, the vehicle struck a Gulf Breeze police unit head on.

After she was stopped, Carroll refused to comply with orders from deputies to open the window and show her hands. According to the report, deputies broke out the windows and she was removed from the driver seat. The sheriff’s office said she remained non-compliant and refused to move on her own. As she was removed from the vehicle, deputies said it began to roll backwards striking two law enforcement officers. A second officer was able to place the vehicle in park.

Deputies said Carroll was chanting repeatedly and illegibly and refused to answer any questions. According to the report, she was placed into a patrol vehicle and continued chanting. When an officer asked if she was OK, Carroll continued chanting and then stopped abruptly to ask her to call a state representative for her and then continued to chant. At no time did deputies detect an odor of alcohol from Carroll or observe that her speech was slurred, according to the sheriff’s office.

“She was messed up on drugs,” Gulf Breeze Police Chief Robert Randell told WEAR-TV. “The reason why they were after he was they thought she was DUI and they were just trying to stop her.”

According to the report, Carroll was charged with driving under the influence, resisting an officer without violence, reckless driving, and fleeing to elude law enforcement. On the sheriff’s office website, however, there are four more charges listed — fleeing to elude law enforcement, aggravated battery, assault, and resisting an office. Her bonds totaled $110,000, according to the sheriff’s office website.

It was unclear whether she remained in Santa Rosa County jail Monday.

A voicemail message to Carroll’s office was not returned Monday.

This story was originally published September 12, 2016 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Lakewood Ranch attorney may have been high on bath salts, cops say."