'Drinker's Guide to Driving' Author Charged With DUI

A nationally known DUI defense attorney now knows exactly what his clients face when those flashing blue lights show up in their rear view mirrors.

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office charged attorney Tom Hudson with DUI on Monday.

Hudson, a probable cause affidavit states, was spotted by a deputy speeding southbound on McIntosh Road from Bee Ridge Road Monday evening. The deputy paced him doing between 45 to 55 mph in a 35 mph zone “and observed him weaving in the lane, but not crossing lines,” the report states.

The deputy quickly pulled Hudson over. Hudson readily stopped, but the deputy noted signs of potential impairment and called in an investigator rather than just writing a speeding ticket.

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That investigator, Deputy Jimmy Adams, noted visible signs of impairment in his report, along with a “distinct odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath as he spoke to me,” the report said.

Hudson admitted to having a single drink at Bradenton’s Red Barn, but said “he was fine to drive,” the report said. Sticking to his guns, Hudson refused to step out of his car for field sobriety tests, the report added.

Based on his personal knowledge of Hudson’s “usual mannerisms and speech patterns,” Adams advised Hudson he was under arrest for DUI and told him to get out of the vehicle.

“Do what you have to do,” Hudson told Adams, the report said.

Hudson is well known to Adams and many other local law enforcement officers because of his extensive DUI defense practice. The Sarasota attorney is considered one of the country’s most prominent DUI defense lawyers and is the author of “The Drinker’s Guide to Driving: The Secrets of DUI from One of America’s Top DUI Lawyers.” He also is board certified as a DUI Specialist by the National College for DUI Defense and is a faculty member at the National College for DUI Defense, taught by Harvard Law School, according to his firm’s website.

Despite his credentials, Hudson was arrested, cuffed and taken to the Sarasota County Jail. Once there, he agreed to a breath test. He blew a .121 and a .128, according to the report. The legal limit in Florida is .08. Hudson also agreed to a blood test. Those results are still pending.

While Hudson isn’t saying why he admitted to drinking or why he submitted to both tests, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune quoted him as saying the experience was “eye-opening.”

Hudson was booked into the Sarasota County Jail on a count of DUI and later released.

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