A Naples police dispatcher attempted to defuse a confrontation between a man and Naples Mayor Teresa Heitmann moments before authorities arrived on scene Sept. 25, a 911 call shows.
Heitmann, 61, faces one count of driving under the influence. She waived her arraignment and claimed her innocence the same day she was released on $500 bond.
The call, which came in around 9:50 p.m., lasted nearly five minutes. During that time, the mayor attempted to leave the scene, the recording shows.
“Yeah, I think the mayor is drunk, and she just… she just, literally just drove over our mailbox,” the caller said as he gasped heavily and his voice shook.
That statement appeared to confuse the dispatcher.
“The mayor did?” the dispatcher asked, to which the caller replied, “I don’t know. She’s claiming to be the mayor. I don’t know who she is. She just drove… She’s drunk, and she just drove on our lawn, and now she’s coming to talk to me.”
He said Heitmann was driving a Porsche sportscar, “literally almost running into” his Jeep and followed him. The victim said Heitmann stood on his lawn as he spoke with the dispatcher.
“I’m just putting a note here,” the dispatcher said after the caller again indicated Heitmann insisted she was the Naples mayor.
‘Then why did you come here?’
“Then why did you come here?” the caller asked Heitmann while the dispatcher remained on the line, later shouting, “No, we didn’t,” when Heitmann accused them of failing to yield.
The dispatcher urged that both parties keep a distance.
“Stay away from her if you could,” the dispatcher said.
When the dispatcher asked if Heitmann was outside the home, the caller replied, saying she parked in front of their home, “upset that I called you guys.”
“I’m upset that you called the police,” Heitmann said in the background as the caller tried to confirm the Porsche’s color, the recording shows.
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The caller again asked Heitmann why she followed them home.
“Why did you pull into our grass?” he asked. “No, we didn’t. We’re driving down Third Street, and we saw you slam on the brakes and give yourself a headache because you almost ran us over, and then you follow us home, claiming we cut you off and you almost ran the back of our car. We saw you flashing the lights and running the back of our car.”
As the argument escalated, the dispatcher intervened.
“Sir, I don’t want you guys to get into any type of more confrontation than you already have,” the dispatcher said. “Can you step away from her or tell her to back off until the police get there?”
‘She’s just standing there’
While the conversation continued, the dispatcher asked what Heitmann was doing.
“She’s just standing there,” the caller replied.
The dispatcher then asked if anyone was injured and if she needed to send an ambulance. The man said he was unharmed and relayed the question to Heitmann, to which she answered she was not injured.
‘I guess she’s just leaving now’
When the dispatcher asked that Heitmann identify herself, she replied “Mayor Teresa Heitmann.”
“OK, all right,” the dispatcher said. She then asked the caller if he felt comfortable hanging up.
He did not indicate his level of comfort, but instead replied, “I guess she’s just leaving now.”
“She can’t leave,” the dispatcher said. “She needs to wait.”
The caller said the mayor was leaving the scene.
“She said she’s staying now,” he said, to which the dispatcher replied, “OK, just tell her she needs to wait for officers to arrive there.”
The caller said he was trying to make Heitmann remain on scene.
“If she does leave, don’t try to stop her,” the dispatcher said. “Just let me know if she does leave.”
The caller later expressed confusion.
“I’m just so confused [about] what’s going on,” he said.
What led to Naples Mayor Teresa Heitmann’s arrest?
According to an arrest report from Naples police, officers responded to a residence in the 500 block of 16th Avenue South to a driver possibly intoxicated who claimed to be the mayor.
When a Naples police sergeant arrived, the report says, he immediately recognized Heitmann leaning on the hood of her silver Porsche, speaking with two officers, who reported they saw Heitmann driving the car.
The sergeant then spoke with the residents, who said they were driving south on Third Street South when Heitmann’s silver Porsche almost ran the stop sign and had to “slam” on the brakes.
She then told the sergeant the occupants in another car, who live at a residence, nearly hit her in a roundabout.
Heitmann told police she did not follow them.
The sergeant told Heitmann they were standing in front of other people’s home before Heitmann “rolled her eyes and asked what was going on.”
The sergeant reported he could “immediately smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage” emanating from Heitmann.
According to the sergeant, Heitmann had “glassy, watery eyes” and a “slowed, slurred speech consistent with being intoxicated.”
Both residents said the Porsche tailgated them, flashing the lights and parked on the grass by the residence.
As the resident grabbed a phone and called police, Heitmann said, “Call the police,” and, “She is the mayor, and that nothing will happen.”
Heitmann told police that she “would never tell them she was the mayor,” the report states.
When officers performed field sobriety tests, they noted Heitmann was unable to follow the movement of a pen with her eyes and continued to turn her head.
“Heitmann would stop following the pen with her eyes when she felt the exercise was over,” the report says in part.
When told she had to walk straight, taking nine heel-to-toe steps as she counted out loud, the report says, she took 13 steps on one attempt and 16 steps on the next.
Officers then had her perform a third exercise — a one-leg stand. The report says Heitmann could not hold her foot off the ground for more than six seconds and would stop the exercises when her foot touched the ground.
Heitmann completed two breath samples, which resulted in a blood-alcohol content of 0.155 and 0.169.
The Naples Daily News has attempted to reach Heitmann twice for comment since her arrest, but has not received a response.
A phone call to a number registered to Heitmann indicated the mailbox was full and could not accept further messages. The Daily News left a voicemail at a second number associated with her.
Her arraignment is set for Sept. 18, although her waiver counts as her plea of not guilty. She was released Thursday on $500 bond and is the second Collier County elected official arrested on drunken driving charges this year.
Heitmann, a former account executive for cosmetics firms Revlon Co. and then Lancôme, in Jacksonville, entered politics in 2008.
Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at [email protected] or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Threads @tomasfrobeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran and Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Naples Mayor Teresa Heitmann aggressive as man calls police: 911 call
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