A visitor to The Villages has been sentenced after fleeing the scene of a 2023 golf cart crash in Spanish Springs.
Rita Marie Peck, 60, of Wilmington, N.C., was placed on three years probation last month in Lake County Court after pleading no contest to charges of leaving the scene of an accident, driving under the influence, battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. She will also lose her driver’s license for six months, however the judge did allow for her to seek a Business Purposes Only license.
Peck had been traveling with a male companion in a golf cart when they were involved in an accident with an automobile at about 9 p.m. Jan. 16, 2023 at Paige Place south of Avenida Central in the Spanish Springs area, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. Peck “fumbled” through her wallet when she attempted to present the investigating officer with her North Carolina driver’s license.
The officer had instructed Peck to remain in the golf cart while collecting information from both drivers. The officer was in a patrol car when Peck was having trouble unzipping the door flap of the golf cart. She appeared to be unsteady due to intoxication. She drove away in the golf cart while the investigation into the accident was still in progress…