A Florida police officer was booked into the Orange County jail Saturday on drunk driving charges — and his department says he was behind the wheel of a department patrol car at the time.
Joseph Everett, an officer with the Haines City Police Department, was arrested in Orlando and booked on charges of driving under the influence and reckless driving. Jail records list his breath alcohol reading at .20 — two and a half times the .08 legal limit.
He was off duty. The vehicle was the department’s.
And by Sunday, the department had already made its call: the Haines City Police Department says Everett is no longer employed there.
The Detail Everyone Is Talking About
The department confirmed the basics directly: Everett was off duty when Orlando officers made the arrest, and he was driving a department patrol vehicle at the time. Not his personal car. A police patrol vehicle, with a .20 reading on the booking sheet, on a Saturday afternoon.
Orlando police have not released details about what led to the stop or what the reckless driving charge covers. Those records come out when the paperwork does.
2024: The Prior Arrest
This was not Everett’s first arrest tied to alcohol and police work. In June 2024, he was working as a Polk County deputy when a supervisor noticed the smell of alcohol as he reported for duty. According to the sheriff’s office at the time, Everett admitted to drinking before his shift — describing it as roughly three coffee mugs of whiskey. He resigned following that arrest.
The 2024 charge was later dropped, and he was never convicted of anything. That distinction matters legally. What it does not erase is the record itself: a deputy reporting for duty smelling of whiskey, admitting it, and walking out of the profession in cuffs.
The Department Knew — And Hired Him Anyway
Haines City Police Chief Isaac Jackson confirmed it in his own statement this weekend. The department, he said, gave Everett “a second opportunity to serve in law enforcement following his prior separation from another agency.”
That is the department acknowledging on the record that it knew about the 2024 separation when it hired him in July 2026. Four months later, the same officer was in a patrol car with a .20 reading.
Jackson called the arrest a serious violation of the department’s general orders, said the conduct undermines trust in the profession — and by Sunday was referring to him only as “former Officer Everett.”
What Happens Next
Everett answers his charges in Orange County court, and like every defendant he is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The DUI and reckless driving cases are pending.
The employment question is already closed. The question that remains belongs to Haines City: how does an officer with an alcohol-related resignation from a sheriff’s office get handed a badge and a patrol car — and what does that say about the vetting that put him there?
#OhDangReally #JosephEverett #HainesCityFlorida
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