SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) – A Miami woman faces a felony charge of driving under the influence after, authorities said, she struck a Miami-Dade Sheriff\u2019s Office deputy with her car, causing serious injuries that required multiple surgeries.<\/p>\n
Janice Garcia, 28, turned herself in on Sunday and was charged with DUI causing serious bodily injury, a third-degree felony.<\/p>\n
On Monday, a Miami-Dade courtroom was filled with family members of the deputy, as Circuit Court Judge Mindy S. Glazer read the charges that the suspect is facing.<\/p>\n
\u201cStruck an officer who was in the line of duty at 3:30 in the morning and injured him very badly,\u201d said Glazer.<\/p>\n
The defendant\u2019s attorney talked about her client\u2019s background. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe has no priors. She is a therapist of mental health, specializing in work with children. She was not arrested the night of this incident. She remained on the scene, there is no indication that she fled,\u201d Garcia\u2019s attorney told the judge.<\/p>\n
According to the arrest affidavit, MDSO deputies were on uniform patrol in the Kendall neighborhood, on April 11.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when, officials said, Garcia\u2019s blue 2020 Mazda, traveling northbound on Southwest 99th Court near 85th Street, struck Deputy Josh Brown as he walked around the rear of a marked patrol vehicle.<\/p>\n
The impact launched the victim into the air. Fire rescue transported him to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital as a trauma alert.<\/p>\n
Brown suffered a spinal compression fracture and multiple broken bones, including a fractured fibula that required surgery, as well as numerous soft tissue injuries.<\/p>\n
A member of the Sheriff\u2019s Impaired Driving Enforcement Squad responded and made contact with Garcia, who was described as visibly distraught, with slurred speech, bloodshot eyes and the odor of alcohol on her breath. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo Deputy Brown is very seriously injured as a result of a careless and reckless driving behavior by a DUI. He will probably never be the same, and he\u2019s lucky he\u2019s alive today,\u201d said South Florida Police Benevolent Association Executive Vice President David Greenwell. \u201cThis happens too often. People should not drink and drive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia agreed to field sobriety testing and voluntarily submitted to a blood draw. Toxicology results confirmed her blood alcohol level was nearly twice Florida\u2019s legal limit of 0.08.<\/p>\n
She surrendered to authorities at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in West Miami-Dade but was placed on house arrest following her bond court appearance. <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n
\tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) – A Miami woman faces a felony charge of driving under the influence after,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-267287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}