{"id":578414,"date":"2026-04-03T00:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T00:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/578414\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T00:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T00:02:08","slug":"after-crash-tiger-woods-told-deputy-he-was-talking-to-the-president-body-camera-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/578414\/","title":{"rendered":"After crash, Tiger Woods told deputy he was ‘talking to the president,’ body camera shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

After crashing his SUV<\/a> last week in Florida, Tiger Woods took out his phone and told a deputy, \u201cI was just talking to the president,\u201d according to body camera footage released Thursday showing Woods’ arrest on a DUI charge.<\/p>\n

The phone conversation was not captured on video, but Woods could be heard saying, \u201cThank you so much,\u201d as he hung up and the deputy approached. It wasn’t clear if Woods was referring to President Donald Trump, whose former daughter-in-law, Vanessa Trump, is dating Woods.<\/p>\n

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Shortly after the golfer’s March 27 arrest, Trump was asked about Woods and told reporters: \u201cI feel so badly. He\u2019s got some difficulty. Very close friend of mine. He\u2019s an amazing person. Amazing man. But, some difficulty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Trump spoke to Woods after the crash.<\/p>\n

The footage also shows how Woods appeared to be astonished as he was handcuffed after failing a sobriety test and a video from the back of the patrol car shows the handcuffed golfer hiccupping, yawning and repeatedly appearing to nod off during the 15-minute ride.<\/p>\n

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Woods told authorities he was looking at his phone and changing the radio station when his speeding Land Rover clipped the back of a truck and rolled onto its side<\/a> on a residential road on Jupiter Island. No one was injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked down at my phone, and all of a sudden \u2014 boom,\u201d Woods told an officer as he knelt on a lawn, prior to his arrest.<\/p>\n

Body camera footage shows Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Tatiana Levenar then conducting a roadside sobriety test and telling Woods: \u201cI do believe your normal faculties are impaired, and you\u2019re under an unknown substance, so at this time you\u2019re under arrest for DUI.”<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m being arrested?\u201d Woods responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, sir,\u201d Levenar said.<\/p>\n

After handcuffing Woods, authorities searched his pockets and found two white pills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a Norco,\u201d Woods said after an officer pulled out the pills, referring to a painkiller that contains acetaminophen and the opioid hydrocodone. Authorities would later confirm that Woods was in possession of hydrocodone.<\/p>\n

In the body camera footage, Woods told Levenar that he had not drunk any alcohol and that he had taken \u201ca few\u201d medications earlier in the day, though Woods\u2019 words are muted in the released video as he describes some of the drugs.<\/p>\n

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At the sheriff\u2019s office complex, after Woods was escorted into the \u201cDUI room\u201d where drivers are tested for being under the influence, Woods said, \u201cI\u2019m not drunk. I\u2019m on a prescription medication,\u201d according to a supplemental sheriff\u2019s office report released Thursday.<\/p>\n

Woods, 50, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday<\/a> to suspicion of driving under the influence. He posted a statement Tuesday night saying that he was stepping away indefinitely \u201cto seek treatment and focus on my health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woods agreed to a Breathalyzer test that showed no signs of alcohol, but he refused a urine test, authorities said. Under a change to Florida law last year, refusing an officer\u2019s request to take a breath, blood or urine test became a misdemeanor, even for a first offense.<\/p>\n

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During the field sobriety test, deputies noticed Woods limping and that he had a compression sock over his right knee. Woods explained he had undergone seven back surgeries and over 20 surgeries on his right leg, and that his ankle seizes up while walking.<\/p>\n

Woods, who was hiccupping during questioning, continuously moved his head during one of the sobriety tests and deputies had to tell him several times to keep his head straight, according to an arrest report.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on my observations of Woods, how he performed the exercises and based on my training, knowledge, and experience, I believed that Woods normal faculties were impaired, and he was unable to safely operate the motor vehicle,\u201d Levenar wrote.<\/p>\n

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Woods is the most influential figure in golf and has become as recognizable as any athlete in the world. The first person of Black heritage to win the Masters in 1997, he has captivated golf fans with records likely never to be broken.<\/p>\n

His injuries have kept him from accomplishing more, including from a 2021 Los Angeles car crash<\/a> that damaged his right leg so badly he said doctors considered amputation. He has not played an official event since the 2024 British Open. He was recovering from a seventh back surgery in October and was trying to return at the Masters, where he is a five-time champion.<\/p>\n

\u2014-<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

R.j. Rico, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After crashing his SUV last week in Florida, Tiger Woods took out his phone and told a deputy,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,862,221682,82,6982,169983],"class_list":{"0":"post-578414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-president-donald-trump","12":"tag-sobriety-test","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tiger-woods","15":"tag-vanessa-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}