A 24-year-old Daytona Beach woman now faces six criminal charges after she allegedly plowed her Ford Bronco into a parked Honda, struck the car's owner, and then tearfully told arriving officers she thought they "were all friends."
Elizabeth Boucher drove her Bronco through a roundabout in Daytona Beach, Florida, before slamming into a Honda parked outside a woman's home on August 30, the New York Post reported. Home security footage released by Daytona Police shows the impact sent glass into the air and shoved the Honda across the front lawn. Boucher kept her foot on the gas after the collision, spinning her back tires and kicking dirt into the air.
The Honda's owner was inside her home when a neighbor alerted her to the crash. She ran outside, and, according to her account to officers, walked straight into a confrontation.
"She came at me and she was like in my face. She smacked me right here."
That is how the victim described the encounter to Daytona Police. An arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime states the victim struck Boucher back, sending her to the ground. Boucher then allegedly followed the woman back to her front door and shoved her again before police arrived on scene.
Officers who responded found Boucher wearing a black bra and leggings. She had difficulty standing and showed signs of intoxication. When asked for her driver's license, Boucher handed an officer her passport. Asked again, she turned over her entire purse.
She refused to perform sobriety exercises. She refused to provide a breath sample. When an officer pointed out the extent of the damage, telling her she had not merely clipped the Honda but had taken "the car completely off," Boucher offered a different version of events.
"I guess I hit the front right of their car. But I don't know what really happened."
Boucher told officers she had been out getting something for her daughter before the crash. She tried to climb into a police car on her own. She grew uncooperative. She tried to walk away from the scene. Officers handcuffed her.
Even in handcuffs, Boucher kept talking. She insisted she was not resisting arrest and said she just wanted to make sure her daughter got what she needed. She told officers she would never get pulled over again. At one point, she told a cop "she was hot."
Then came the plea that capped the encounter. Crying, Boucher asked officers not to take her to jail:
"Please don't take me to jail over this. I thought we were all friends."
Daytona Police charged Boucher with six offenses: DUI, DUI damage to property, touch or strike, Florida's term for simple battery, refusal to submit to DUI testing, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, and resisting arrest without violence. The specific controlled substance was not identified in available records.
Boucher was booked on August 31 and released from jail the same day. She is expected to appear in court on October 21.
The arrest affidavit does not specify whether either Boucher or the victim required medical treatment. The full extent of the damage to the Honda and the victim's property remains unclear. Daytona Police released the home security footage on their Facebook page, showing the Bronco barreling through the roundabout and into the parked car.
A woman who refused a breath test, refused sobriety exercises, allegedly struck a stranger, and begged officers to let her go because she thought they were "friends" walked out of a Florida jail in under a day. The system moved fast, just not in the direction most taxpayers would expect.
