ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – Video released Tuesday showing the DUI arrest of former Putnam County Sheriff Jeff Hardy shows Hardy telling deputies during a field sobriety test that he “wrote the book on DUI.”
At one point during the July 24 arrest in Ormond Beach, Hardy playfully tries to give a deputy a fist pound, and the deputy forcefully asks Hardy not to do that.
In the video, deputies indicate that the Volusia County Sheriff's Office had responded earlier in the night to a fight Hardy was involved in with his girlfriend at his home and that deputies had warned Hardy then not to get behind the wheel.
But hours after the fight, Hardy was pulled over by Volusia County deputies on suspicion of DUI, and one deputy can be heard in the video telling Hardy that he put them “in a tight spot” after the deputies gave him a break earlier the same night.
The body camera footage shows Hardy barefoot, failing a field sobriety test and refusing a breathalyzer.
RAW: Body camera video of former sheriff Jeff Hardy's DUI arrest
(WARNING: Contains some profanity)
The arresting deputy asks Hardy why he felt the need to drive after he'd already been warned, and he responds that he "needed to speak to his ex-wife."
Later in the video, Hardy tells deputies, “I’m done,” and that he just wants to go home and sleep. Deputies respond, “You had that chance,” and tell Hardy he's facing a DUI charge before putting him in handcuffs.
Hardy pleads with deputies before being put in the back of a cruiser, saying that he’d been a cop for 34 years. The arresting deputy responds that he's been on the force for 38 years.
Hardy was the sheriff of Putnam County during one of the county's biggest cases: the 2009 disappearance of 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings. The case remains unsolved.
Hardy served two terms as sheriff and left office in January. He was succeeded by current Sheriff Gator DeLoach.
Hardy is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 5.