A New York snowbird will lose his driver’s license after a drunk driving arrest in The Villages.
John James Whateley, 63, pleaded no contest this past week in Sumter County Court to a charge of driving under the influence, in addition to the loss of his driver’s license for six months, he has been placed on probation for one year and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.
Whateley was driving the blue Chevrolet Corvette at about 8:30 p.m. Dec. 23 traveling east in the westbound lanes of State Road 44 near Meggison Road in The Villages, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. During a traffic stop, Whateley was identified by his New York driver’s license. Whateley, who owns a home in the Village of Richmond, said he’d left a nearby McDonald’s restaurant and was driving the wrong way because he was “not used to the traffic patterns in the area,” the report said.
It appeared Whateley had been drinking and he agreed to take part in field sobriety exercises. He struggled through the exercises and provided breath samples that registered .235 and .211 blood alcohol content…