A 24-year-old Daytona Beach woman is facing multiple charges after police say she crashed an SUV into a parked car on Aug. 30, then downplayed the collision and pleaded with officers not to arrest her, according to newly released surveillance and bodycam video.
Surveillance footage released by Daytona Beach police shows the SUV striking a parked Honda with enough force to push it across a front lawn and out of camera view. When an officer asked Elizabeth Boucher what happened, her account did not match what the video showed.
“I guess I hit the front light of those cars, but I don’t know what really happened,” Boucher told the officer, according to bodycam video.
“You didn’t just hit the front of the car,” the officer responded. “You just took the car completely off.”
When the officer asked for her driver’s license, Boucher handed him a passport instead. “That’s a passport,” the officer told her before repeating the request.
“I thought we were all friends”
Throughout the roadside encounter, Boucher repeatedly appealed to the officers on a personal level and asked not to be taken to jail.
“I thought we were all friends,” Boucher said.
“It’s just a vape. I know. It didn’t even work. Please don’t take me to jail over this,” she said.
An officer told her the investigation had shifted from a civil crash inquiry to a criminal DUI case and read her Miranda rights. Boucher declined to perform field sobriety exercises and refused a breath test when an officer formally requested one.
When she again mentioned their supposed friendship, the officer replied, “But we still have a job to do.” Boucher answered, “I know. I’m not resisting arrest. I just want to make sure my daughter gets what she needs.”
An officer told her to lean against a vehicle so she wouldn’t fall. Asked shortly after whether she was going to jail, she was told yes.
The driver of the parked car also told officers Boucher had confronted and slapped her after the crash. “Yeah, she smacked me right here,” the woman said on bodycam video, adding that she wanted to press charges.
Once under arrest, Boucher appeared confused by the process. “Why am I sitting here all alone? Why is nothing happening?” she asked. An officer told her, “That’s normally what happens when you are arrested.”
Charges and next steps
Police charged Boucher with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, DUI involving damage to property or another person, refusing to submit to DUI testing, battery by touching or striking, resisting an officer without violence, and possessing a controlled substance without a prescription.
An attorney for Boucher could not immediately be identified. She was released from jail on Aug. 31 and has pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to court records. She is expected back in court in Volusia County in October.
