The drunk driving charge alone wouldn’t have been overly serious in comparison: it was a second-degree misdemeanor. But Elisabeth Akers, a 44-year-old resident of Slumber Meadow Trail in Palm Coast, is accused of battering paramedics, assaulting a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence following her encounter with a Flagler County Sheriff’s commander Saturday evening a short distance from her house. She’d been driving erratically—and, briefly, on the wrong side of the road—catching the attention of the commander. She ended up with two additional felonies and one misdemeanor charge, and a $15,500 bond at the Flagler County jail.
Cmdr. Steve Brandt had been in his personal vehicle, driving west on Sesame Boulevard Saturday evening when he spotted a red Jeep driving north on Seminole Woods Parkway . The Jeep turned right onto Sesame and went into the westbound lane, heading straight for Brandt as he drove in the opposite direction, according to Akers’s arrest report. The Jeep swerved right, correcting, but then went off the road into the grassy shoulder before going back onto Sesame. Brandt saw the vehicle make a right onto Slumber Meadow Trail and almost hit a parked vehicle, according to the report, then drive through the grassy median before stopping in the middle of the road.
Brandt approached the driver—Akers—identified himself as a sheriff’s deputy and asked for Akers’s driver’s license, which she was unable to produce. As another deputy was approaching in her marked patrol car, Akers tried to start the vehicle, “presumably to leave the scene,” the report states, before Brandt reached in, turned off the car and took the keys. Akers allegedly tried to punch Brandt but struck the roof of her car instead. The other deputy who arrived at the scene, Paula Priester, reported Akers screaming profanities and slurring her speech. When Akers attempted to get out of the car, she “lunged toward Commander Brandt and deputy Priester,” the report states, then allegedly threatened to punch them both.
Priester tried to stop her. Akers pulled away, but was eventually handcuffed when an additional deputy arrived, though it took a struggle. Once in handcuffs, Akers looked as if she was not going to stand. She turned to “dead weight,” according to the report, and refused to speak. She was placed on the ground until paramedics arrived. It’s not clear whether she was non-responsive because of her condition or whether she was deciding not to react, though at one [point a deputy had to support her to prevent her head from hitting the ground.
Once in back of the ambulance, Akers, the report states, became combative again, kicking firefighter-paramedic Adam Hardy and spitting on firefighter-paramedic Marianne Hutson, who later told deputies she wanted to pursue charges. A mask was applied to Akers’s face to prevent further spitting.
At the hospital, Akers, the report states, “continued to be combative, uncooperative and yell,” attempting to spit at a nurse but being prevented from doing so by the mask. She refused to provide a blood sample.
Her felony arraignment is Jan. 4 at 8:30 a.m. before Circuit Judge J. David Walsh.
Veteran says
6 months in the cross bar hotel might change her attitude!
Ken Dodge says
6 months may change her behavior but it would take a whole lot more time to change her attitude.
groot says
Oh nice, a spitter and a kicker. It’s never a good idea to try and hit the cop. “She turned to “dead weight,” according to the report, and refused to speak.” Now, that appears to be a respectable amount of dead weight. She sounds like she was passing out drunk. I didn’t realize a DUI was only second-degree misdemeanor in Florida. It’s a first degree misdemeanor in many states. Now she’s being arraigned as a felon. But, then, there are a lot of folks who have been arraigned as felons around here. Anyway, she’s her own worst enemy.