A periodontist based at Hurlburt Field was arrested in Tiger Point, Florida after a high-speed traffic stop ended in a chaotic confrontation with deputies. According to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, the driver was clocked at 73 mph in a 55-mph zone, then later refused to comply with officers, refused to provide documentation, and resisted arrest. Deputies say the suspect made bizarre statements, had dilated pupils, and even had to have her vehicle forcibly unlocked using an expandable baton in order to remove her from the car. She is now charged with DUI, resisting an officer, and related public order offenses. In this video, you’ll see the body-worn camera footage from when deputies confronted the entitled suspect, documenting how law enforcement handled a high-profile and tense arrest of a medical professional.
‘I am not the mayor’: Florida mayor arrested for DUI after allegedly blowing twice the legal limit, following couple home, crashing into their mailbox, and parking on their lawn
Inset: Teresa Heitmann (Collier County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Heitmann speaking with a police officer (YouTube/WFTX/Naples Police Department).
A Florida woman was arrested last week after following a couple home in her car while she was drunk, crashing into their mailbox, and then parking on their lawn, police in the Sunshine State say.
The woman just so happens to be the mayor of Naples – a medium-sized city along the Gulf of Mexico, which provides the first half of the namesake to the broader Naples-Marco Island metro area.
Teresa Heitmann, 61, stands accused of one count of driving under the influence (DUI) with an unlawful blood alcohol level (BAC) of 0.15 or higher, according to Collier County Sheriff’s Office records.
Related Coverage:
- ‘They burned alive’: Mother and 2 daughters killed by man driving Dodge Charger nearly 100 mph in 30 mph zone after car gets smashed and erupts in flames
- Abused 16-year-old had ‘maggots crawling out of her body’ and weighed just 40 pounds before dying, mom begs for mercy while claiming she ‘does everything for her children’
- ‘Blast every ICE agent’: Man threatened to kill ‘MAGA maggots’ and immigration officers while possessing weapons cache, feds say
The incident occurred on the night of Aug. 28, near a residence located at the corner of 16th Avenue and 3rd Street. Officers responded to a 911 call lodged by a man who said he and his wife were being followed home by a woman driving a silver vehicle, according to a press release issued by the Naples Police Department.
At first, the man said, the woman was completely “unknown” to them. Later, the calculus shifted when the woman identified herself.
“Yeah, umm, I think the mayor is drunk and she just, she just literally — oh, she just drove over our mailbox,” the man can be heard saying in 911 audio obtained by Miami-based NBC affiliate WTVJ.
The dispatcher responds somewhat incredulous: “The mayor did?”
The man is nonplussed and tells the dispatcher: “I don’t know, she’s claiming to be the mayor. I don’t know who she is.”
The back-and-forth continues.
“Did she ever tell you her name or anything like that?” the dispatcher inquires.
The man asks the woman in his yard: “What is your name, ma’am?”
A woman’s voice can then be heard saying: “Mayor Teresa Heitmann.”
The earned honorific is quickly jettisoned when police arrive.
“Mrs. Mayor, will you come on over for me right here?” a police officer says in body-worn camera footage obtained by the TV station.
“No, don’t call me mayor,” the mayor says in response.
“OK,” the officer obliges. “Sorry.”
“I am Teresa Heitmann right now,” Heitmann continues. “I am not the mayor.”
“OK,” the officer says again.
The confrontation gets a bit more intense in footage obtained by Cape Coral-based Fox affiliate WFTX.
“You are slurring your words a little bit here,” an officer tells the mayor, the footage shows.
She adamantly denies the accusation: “No, sir. I am not slurring my words. I have sat here calm. Calmly.”
The officer deadpans: “Calmly is a loose term. I think I’ve heard you yelling at my officers about twice now.”
Police said the mayor was “leaning on her vehicle” when they arrived at around 9:51 p.m. on the night in question.
“During the call for service, Officers believed Mrs. Heitmann may have been intoxicated and observed her in physical control of her vehicle,” the police department’s press release continues. “At the request of investigating Officers, Mrs. Heitmann agreed to complete field sobriety exercises. Following the completion of the investigation, Officers found probable cause to arrest Mrs. Heitmann for driving under the influence of an intoxicating substance.”
Heitmann allegedly went on to tell police she only had one glass of wine before driving – whereupon the couple in question cut her off in traffic. After allegedly failing her field sobriety test, her BAC was tested twice using a breath analysis device, police say.
One test allegedly showed the mayor had a BAC of of 0.155 and another with a BAC of 0.169. The legal limit in Florida is 0.08.
Join the discussion24comments
“City employees were saddened to learn about the incident involving the Mayor,” Naples City Manager Jay Boodheshwar told WTVJ. “We know this is a difficult time for Mayor Heitmann and will give her the space she needs.”
On Aug. 29, Heitmann was released after posting $500 bond.
Woman dragged from car by ICE agents in Minnesota ID’d as LGBT and racial justice activist
The screaming woman who was filmed being pulled from her car by ICE agents in Minneapolis has been identified as a tech guru and LGBT and racial justice activist who describes herself as a “friendly neighborhood deniable asset.”
Aliya Rahman, a software engineer with a lengthy background in coding, has backed policies for police-worn body cameras and also has prior ties to multiple advocacy groups, including a decade-long history with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Rahman was thrown into the spotlight after viral footage showed federal agents breaking her car window and yanking her out on Tuesday after she apparently blocked ICE vehicles during a protest — less than a week after Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot nearby.
The driver was caught on camera shouting that she was “disabled” and claimed she “was just trying to get to the doctor” as multiple masked federal agents cuffed her and escorted her away in chaotic scenes.
As details surrounding the incident continued to emerge, here’s what we know so far about the activist involved:
Explore More
ICE tensions could be thawing in Minn. after Trump sends in border czar Tom Homan, sidelines Kristi Noem and Border Patrol chief
California Democrats vow to use ‘every power’ to prosecute ICE agents, pull funding
Homeland Security’s bunglers, Greenies’ deep-freeze Rx and other commentary
Who is Aliya Rahman?
Rahman, 43, is a “community-focused security practitioner” in Minneapolis, according to her LinkedIn.
Her career history involves a slew of roles, including a full stack developer and engineering manager, at a host of tech-tied companies.
It wasn’t immediately clear how long Rahman has been based in Minneapolis. Her most recent publicly listed address had her living in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Here’s the latest on the Minneapolis ICE agent shooting:
- Cops frantically begged for help with ‘hostile’ protesters after Renee Nicole Good shooting: ‘ICE being surrounded’
- Minneapolis fire department report reveals Renee Good was shot 4 times by ICE agent
- What is the Insurrection Act of 1807 that Trump threatened to invoke?
- Minneapolis mayor accuses ICE of ‘causing chaos’ in city after illegal migrant is shot
In her X profile, Rahman describes herself as “your friendly neighborhood deniable asset.”
She was previously a fellow at the New America’s Open Technology Institute, where her first project zeroed in on police body cameras and how they could be built into policy.
“Her work is informed by a background in legislative, electoral, and community organizing for racial and criminal justice campaigns, 15 years of software development for the social justice movement, and a former life as an educator and researcher working in public education and workforce development,” her bio on the institute’s website reads.
What is her history of activism?
Rahman, a US-born citizen, moved to a newly established Bangladesh with her family shortly after the nation’s liberation war against Pakistan ended in 1971. She told Tech for Social Justice that she was guided by the “revolutionary energy” she observed during her tumultuous childhood.
“I got to see a country being put together. I grew up seeing garment workers, who were almost all women, protesting on the street,” she said in the profile.
By the time she was 6 years old, Rahman knew she was “definitely different” and later identified herself as “genderqueer” — in a country where homosexuality is punishable by imprisonment.
Rahman moved back to the US for college, having determined she “probably shouldn’t stay” in Bangladesh while she grappled with her queer identity.
She was just starting her junior year when the 9/11 terror attacks rocked the country. She told the initiative that two of her cousins were killed in the Twin Towers.
She cited the attacks as “a really important moment” that pushed her “to dig deeply into US social movements and understanding what race means” in the US, compared to Bangladesh.
Rahman said that as she looked around Indiana, she saw that “brown folks are used against Black people.” As she dove into a relationship with a transgender man, she found that becoming “pretty involved in organizing” was borne out of “necessity.”
“Since college, Aliya had taken part-time positions with and volunteer roles for LGBT and racial justice organizations,” read her Tech for Social Justice profile.
Rahman has bounced around between different advocacy and nonprofit groups, including Center for Community Change, Equality Ohio (an LGBT advocacy group) and Code for Progress.
She’s also supported the Black Lives Matter movement and pro-Palestinian causes, according to her social media.
Rahman served as the director of movement technology at Wellstone, a Minnesota-based nonprofit “that trains the community activists and political leaders that broadly make up the progressive Left,” according to the profile.
She boasted that she changed the advocacy group’s image from that of a “nice, white people-run organization” to “mostly queer, largely immigrant and overwhelmingly femme-identified or gender nonconforming.”
Educational background
She graduated from Purdue University in Indiana with a master’s in science, her LinkedIn shows.
Rahman is also a certified cybersecurity professional with a Certified Information Systems Security Professional license.
Start your day with all you need to know
Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.Enter your email address
By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
After wrapping up her undergraduate education, Rahman spent several years teaching at public high schools on a Native American reservation in Arizona before pivoting back to her advocacy work, according to the Tech for Social Justice profile.
Her recent run-in with ICE
The details on Rahman’s background came to light after she was yanked from her car after the feds accused her of allegedly impeding an immigration enforcement operation on a suburban street on Tuesday.
ICE agents could be seen trying to clear the streets of screaming protesters when they shouted for the woman to keep driving.
Eventually, one agent was filmed smashing the passenger window as another agent appeared to unlock Rahman’s side.
As Rahman was being pulled from the car, protesters could be heard yelling “Stop,” “That’s so f—ked up” and “All you do is hurt.”
She was quickly cuffed and hauled away.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Rahman was charged following the ordeal.
Rahman had several, mainly minor, brushes with the law over a decade ago, according to public records.
She pleaded guilty to criminal trespassing and driving under the influence charges in separate Ohio incidents and was charged with driving without insurance in Illinois, public records show.678
What do you think? Post a comment.
In the DUI charge, she was also found guilty of following too close, stopping improperly at a stop sign, criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct, according to the records.
The Post’s efforts to reach her were unsuccessful.
