Police officer let alleged drunk driver go after traffic stop hours before she slammed into 96-year-old geologist in fatal wrong-way crash: DA
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Left: Genise Taylor (Collier County Jail). Right: Arthur Gilbert (Town of Dorset).

A Florida woman currently detained for allegedly driving under the influence and causing a fatal crash has reportedly admitted in a phone call that she had been stopped by police earlier that evening but was let go. The incident resulted in the tragic death of a 96-year-old man.

Genise Taylor, 24, faces charges of DUI manslaughter following the death of Arthur Gilbert, who was killed near Naples. The fatal collision took place just after 4 a.m. on March 18 on southbound Interstate 75, close to mile marker 109.

Authorities allege that Taylor was driving a Nissan Rogue in the wrong direction on the southbound lanes when she collided with Gilbert’s Volvo XC60. Gilbert was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Blood tests conducted on Taylor revealed a blood alcohol concentration of .213, significantly exceeding the legal limit of 0.08, according to the arrest affidavit.

After being read her Miranda rights, Taylor explained to police that she had put her daughter to bed around 9:30 p.m. that evening before heading to a bar with a friend. She claimed she later went to a Waffle House to meet someone. When questioned about her alcohol consumption, she insisted she had only consumed one glass of wine, as per the affidavit.

Investigators noted that Taylor allegedly “smirked” when pressed on whether she drank more than a single alcoholic beverage.

However, it appears her alcohol consumption was not the only detail she omitted, according to police reports.

Prosecutors at a bond hearing Monday revealed that in a jail phone call with a relative, Taylor said a Collier County Sheriff’s deputy pulled her over hours before the fatal crash.

“She says, yes, she was stopped, and that she knew the officer,” said Mara Marzano, assistant state attorney, according to a courtroom report from local CBS affiliate WINK. Two friends then took Taylor and her vehicle to a Waffle House.

Traffic cameras picked up Taylor’s vehicle again around 3:30 a.m. at Golden Gate Parkway and I-75.

“She’s asleep at an intersection for half an hour or more, and then proceeds to somehow get on the interstate going the wrong way,” Marzano reportedly said.

Taylor’s attorney argued that “there was no intent for this to happen” but it was a “series of events that spiraled out of control and unfortunately ended in someone’s death.”

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office told WINK that the deputy involved in the initial traffic stop, Eric Pellegrino, is a subject of an internal investigation.

A judge denied Taylor’s request for a bond and she remains in the Collier County Jail.

Gilbert, a retired geologist originally from Vermont, had just dropped his wife off at the airport before the crash.

“I said Art, ‘I love you, and you’ll be with me forever,’” Pamela Gilbert said in an interview with local NBC affiliate WBBH.

As for Taylor, the victim’s wife said her fate was up to the courts.

“This woman will live with this for the rest of her life,” she told WBBH. “The law will take care of whatever needs to happen, and I couldn’t put my energy into that anger.”

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