Body camera video of Tiger Woods arrest shows golfer being handcuffed after Florida crash
(CBS NEWS) – Sources from CBS News say that body camera footage of Tiger Woods’ arrest has been released, less than a week after the golf icon was taken into custody following a car crash in Florida and charged with driving under the influence.
The video shows Woods being handcuffed after failing a sobriety test.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office, which responded to the collision, shared video of the arrest on Thursday. It shed more light on the incident that deputies recounted in an affidavit detailing Woods’ demeanor as he interacted with officers and attempted, only partially correctly, to complete a series of sobriety exercises.
In the body camera video, Woods told deputies that he had been checking his phone while driving and hit the car in front of him.
“I looked down at my phone and all of a sudden, boom,” Woods said. No one was injured.
Woods, 50, had to climb out of the passenger’s side door of his Land Rover in the wake of the March 27 crash on Jupiter Island, because the car had flipped onto its side after clipping the trailer attached to a pickup truck driving in front of him, according to the arrest report.
Deputies observed the athlete “sweating profusely,” with glassy and bloodshot eyes that he initially concealed behind a pair of sunglasses. In the report, they said Woods was driving behind the truck and failed to notice when it slowed down in front of him to turn into a driveway. His SUV then swerved over the double lines running down the center of the street and struck the trailer before rolling over.
Woods told deputies that he had not consumed alcohol that day but had taken “a few” prescription medications, the names of which were redacted from the arrest report. In the video, Woods’ voice was muted as he described some of the medications.
The footage showed the moment two pills were found in the pocket of Woods’ pants, which deputies also described in their affidavit. Woods could be heard telling an officer “that’s a Norco” once the pills were retrieved, referring to a drug containing hydrocodone and acetaminophen, the Associated Press reported. The pills were later determined to be the painkiller hydrocodone, according to the affidavit.
While undergoing a sobriety test, Woods told officers that he underwent seven surgeries on his back and more than 20 on his right leg, and his ankle seizes when he walks.
Throughout his interactions with officers at the scene, Woods appeared to be alert but his “movement was lethargic and slow,” they said in the arrest report. He agreed to undergo field sobriety tests, which were meant to evaluate his coordination and ability to follow instructions, but did not perform all of the tasks correctly.
Woods was taken into custody without incident and subsequently transported to the Martin County Jail, deputies said. Once there, he agreed to an alcohol breath test, which did not show the presence of alcohol in his body, but refused to submit a urine test, which could have detected other substances in his system. In addition to the DUI, Woods faces additional charges for refusing the urine test.
A court document filed Tuesday by Woods’ attorneys showed he has pleaded not guilty to the charges and waived his right to arraignment. Woods said later in a social media post that he would be “stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment.”
