Two principals of Lake County charter schools were charged last week with drunk driving, accused of driving the same car within hours of each other after a night out together at a Clermont restaurant.
The second arrest came after the passenger in the first incident went back to retrieve the car while her friend waited in jail.
Jennifer Jimenez, 41, and Christina Alcalde, 45, were arrested by Clermont police in the early morning hours of July 5 for driving under the influence and refusing to submit to sobriety tests, both second-degree misdemeanors. They both have pleaded not guilty.
The pair were traveling together when Jimenez, who was appointed principal at Pinecrest Academy Tavares in April, was pulled over just after 2 a.m. after police caught her swerving a white Jeep into the opposite lanes on Minnehaha Avenue near Hooks Street, according to an arrest affidavit. At one point, police said Jimenez drove over a curb and, though driving south, veered into the northbound lane before police pulled her over.
The Jeep belonged to Alcalde, who police said was in the passenger seat and told them they had left a restaurant where they had several drinks that were “poured heavy.”
Video released by the Clermont Police Department showed the two women struggling to show the officer a photo of Jimenez’s license, which they said was on Alcalde’s phone. The officer eventually asked Jimenez to step out of the car, noticing that Alcalde repeatedly responded to questions directed at Jimenez.
“It’s not every day that I have a passenger do more talking than the driver,” the officer said.
“She’s worried about me,” Jimenez said. The officer replied, “I am too.”
The affidavit described Jimenez as walking “very unsteady and choppy” after she was asked to step out of the car and said she “staggered and swayed as she attempted to stand still.” After declining to perform a sobriety test, she was handcuffed and taken to the Lake County Jail.
Alcalde, who has served as principal at Pinecrest Lakes Academy since 2017, ordered a car from a ridesharing app to get home, and police parked the Jeep in a nearby lot, the affidavit said.
Around 5 a.m., however, the arresting officer was told Alcalde was seen driving in Clermont and then drove by and noted the Jeep was no longer in the lot. Alcalde, who police said was slurring her words and was “unsteady on her feet” when Jimenez was arrested, had returned to the scene and retrieved the car, only to be stopped about a mile away, on State Road 50 near Sandhill View Boulevard, the document said.
Video of that arrest showed a tearful Alcalde telling police she understood she wasn’t supposed to be driving but she was attempting to get $2,000 from an ATM to post bond for Jimenez.
“I just talked to you. You were really drunk when I talked to you. It’s a couple hours later,” the officer said. She replied, “I understand. I’m really not, I promise you I’m not. I’m just really worried about my friend.”
She was handcuffed after the officer told a sergeant on video that she was “on the edge” while performing the field sobriety tests, which included walking a line and following his finger with her eyes.
“I think there’s enough, clues-wise,” he said. Alcalde later refused to take a breath test, the affidavit said.
When contacted Tuesday morning about Alcalde, the person who answered the phone at Pinecrest Lakes Academy said she could not provide any information.
Jimenez was a vice principal at Pinecrest Lakes Academy, the school Alcalde runs, until she was appointed as the principal at Pinecrest Academy Tavares this spring. That school did not answer its phone Tuesday morning.
As charter schools, the two campuses are publicly funded but run by private groups. Pinecrest Lakes enrolls about 1,100 students and Pinecrest Academy Tavares about 1,000.
The Pinecrest Academy governing board, which oversees more than a dozen charter schools in Florida including the two where Alcalde and Jimenez worked, did not respond to a request for comment.
Both women were bonded out of the Lake County Jail on $2,000 bond. Their next court hearing is set to take place Aug. 3.
