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Celebrity Justice
'Burn Notice' Star -- I Was Only Borderline Drunk!

Posted Jul 20th 2009 3:01PM by TMZ Staff

"Burn Notice" star Jeffrey Donovan is going to have a rough time in court -- it's not exactly an airtight defense in a DUI case to argue, "I really think I'm only borderline and not too drunk."

We obtained the police report from the Miami Beach PD. The arresting officer wrote he first noticed Donovan after hearing "a loud tire screech behind me." The cop said he saw Donovan's car swerve left to avoid hitting the police car.

When Donovan finally stopped, he didn't serve himself well when he said, "Sorry, I didn't see the red light or your stopped car."

The officer says he smelled a strong odor of alcohol, asked Donovan if he had anything to drink and got this answer: "I had three drinks at the Fontainebleau."

Donovan flunked a field sobriety test and was taken into custody. That's when he said, "The only mistake I made tonight was drinking Benadryl with 3 glasses of wine."

We're thinking that's not necessarily his only mistake.

UPDATE 5:49 PM ET Donovan was just charged with one count of DUI. If convicted he could get 6 months in the slammer, but given that he's a first offender it's unlikely that he'll do any time.

See Also


Celebrity DUI's


Tags: arrest, burn notice, BurnNotice, busted, driving, drunk, dui, fontainebleau, Jeffrey donovan, JeffreyDonovan, miami beach, MiamiBeach

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61. Posted at 6:45AM on Jul 21st 2009 by Jeremy Smith

YOUR AN IDIOT.

Firstly, making drinking and driving LEGAL wouldn't cut back on DUI's or accidents.

Secondly, so you're saying DUI's are dumb BUT cops should do a better job looking out for drunk drivers? And it's the drivers friends fault for not stoping their friend from driving in the first place?

When is it the fault of the driver whos drinking? You seem to blame everyone but the drinker. I'm thinkin you make a habit of drinking and driving and you want to blame everyone else but yourself for a possibly accident.

You're probably the stupidest person I've ever seen leave a comment on this website. Grow the fck up. I don't wish what i've experienced (losing my sister) on anyone...but maybe if you experienced such a tragidy you'd understand...probably not though as you seem to have no concious.

Posted at 5:10PM on Jul 21st 2009 by ERICKA

62. for the record, i am not defending drinking and driving. it is stupid and ALWAYS a mistake and this guy used terrible judgement and made a mistake. that being said, what are ou people talking about that you can't be borderline drunk? have you heard of 'buzzed', 'tipsy'? have you ever had anything to drink? you are the ones who sound like idiots, you don't go from being sober to drunk with no steps in between. you gradually become more and more intoxicated. you have seriously never described yourself or someone else as a little bit drunk or kind of tipsy? idiots.

Posted at 6:03PM on Jul 21st 2009 by really?

63. dont be so hard on him. many other people have done more stupid things than him while being picked up for a dui. this will pass over and the show will continue. the show is awesome anyway.

ps: like any of you havent got picked up for a dui or something else for a stupid reason

Posted at 11:14PM on Jul 21st 2009 by BigGame1988

64. get over it!
when someone down the block gets shot no one cares!!
who gives a crap if he drank some! let the guy live alittle.
but he should rent a limo or taxi next time!

Posted at 5:19AM on Jul 24th 2009 by OMFG

65. I hope he does time, that's the only way he's going to learn. How do you NOT see a red light on a police car nor the car itself? And his excuse... borderline drunk? Geesh... is that like borderline pregnant or borderline dead? And any idiot knows you don't drink after taking Benadryl! That in itself is sedating! He needs to be punished like any Joe Blow would. He won't be, but he SHOULD, the laws were written for ALL Americans, not just the poor and ugly.

Posted at 1:58PM on Jul 28th 2009 by George Of The City

66. Oh, and the average drunk driver gets behind the wheel of a car over 50 times before getting caught. One out of ten drivers on the road has been drinking or doing drugs enough to impare his judgement. Check out some stats on drunk drivers before you defend this guy. I feel for anyone who's been a victim or has family/friends who were victims of a drunk/drugged driver.

Posted at 2:10PM on Jul 28th 2009 by George Of The City

67. First of all: There is such a thing as a little drunk, or tipsy. Anybody who's ever drank knows that there are levels of "drunkedness": goes from tipsy to completely hammered. And I know some people who drive better tipsy than most drivers I see on the road every day (and probably most of the people posting here)

To everyone who thinks he's dumb, Jeffrey's pretty smart actually. I'm pretty sure there's nothing in the law that says you can't take benadryl and drive and there's no way to verify if he did.
So if he refuses the breathalyzer, there's no way to actually know just how much he actually drank. This makes his sentence MUCH lighter than it could be if he got trashed and took the breathalyzer test. (there'd be proof of how drunk he was)
In court he could say "I drank 3 glasses of wine in like 3 hours and it's the benadryl that knocked me out. I didn't realize until I was at the wheel" So he'd get out of it pretty well.

Posted at 1:50AM on Aug 17th 2009 by BNfan

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