Florida Agriculture Department's top cop under driving restrictions after DUI crash

TALLAHASSEE — The top cop for the state's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has been driving on a hardship driver's license ever since a drunken-driving crash in which his blood-alcohol level measured three times the level at which the state presumes impairment.

Col. Alvis Darrell Liford also had an "interlock'' breath-testing device installed in his car to ensure he wouldn't drive drunk, according to court records.

Liford, 55, finished paying off $1,500 in court fines and fees last month for the July DUI crash, according to court records. Records show he had lost control of his Chevrolet pickup and flipped it after hitting a tree off U.S. 90 near Monticello.

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper reported that he found a bottle of Ancient Age Whiskey in Liford's truck and that Liford smelled of alcohol. After he was taken to hospital, Liford acknowledged he had " a few drinks'' and was driving his vehicle to pick up his son from school.

As the head of the Agriculture Department's law-enforcement arm, Liford earns $111,551 and oversees 250 sworn law-enforcement officers. Among their duties: policing telemarketers, state-land arsonists, cattle rustlers and commercial vehicles hauling agricultural products and livestock.

Liford declined to comment.

Terry McElroy, spokesman for the Agriculture Department, said Liford promptly disclosed the arrest to his immediate supervisor and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson.

"He was not on duty at the time of the accident, and he was not driving a state vehicle," McElroy said. He said Liford "received no special treatment'' during or after his arrest.

Liford's license was suspended and he received a business-only driver's license. Court records show he also attended a DUI school, had his vehicle impounded for 10 days and attended a rehabilitation facility in lieu of spending 65 days in jail.

An inspector general's report shows his right to drive a state vehicle was revoked for 90 days.

Word of Liford's arrest, first reported on a law-enforcement officer blog last year, started to leak out in the state Capitol this week just as Bronson announced that he would consider running for governor if Gov. Charlie Crist left office to run for U.S. Senate.

Marc Caputo can be reached at mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com.