ORANGE COUNTY, F — An Orange County public defender is now in need of his own legal defense after his DUI arrest Friday night.
Video from the trooper’s patrol car shows how Derreck Quarles tried to talk his way out of going to jail. He was stopped after driving through a road closure on Interstate 4, investigators said.
He told the trooper he worked with juveniles and had once been a teacher. He said multiple times that he was a good person who had never been arrested.
Troopers said when they stopped the car, Quarles looked physically impaired, smelled of alcohol and had vomited.
He was given a sobriety test and had difficulty walking the yellow line.
“I’m a public defender. I’m sorry,” he told the troopers. “I was going out tonight because one of my friends, it’s her last day, and I’ve done everything right.”
A report said he also told the trooper that he was at Ember and The Lodge in downtown Orlando, and was heading home.
But troopers couldn’t figure out why he was going west on Interstate 4 and not east toward his Longwood home.
Troopers said he blew a 0.21, almost three times the legal limit.
He tried repeatedly to get the troopers to drive him home instead.
Quarles was taken to the Seminole County Jail on Saturday morning, which was his birthday.
“On my (expletive) birthday you send me here? Unbelievable,” he said.
The Public Defender’s Office said he is still employed at the office, but would not release other details, saying the office doesn’t talk about personnel matters with the media.