LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – Lake County deputies have arrested a woman who led them on a low speed pursuit with an infant in the vehicle.
Investigators said that an officer approached Lucy Maldonado, 39, in the parking lot of a Wawa on U.S. Hwy. 27 in Clermont at about 5 p.m. Tuesday.
The officer described Maldonado to be slurring her speech, before putting the car in drive and taking off.
Maldonado's vehicle was seen stopped near the intersection of Conroy Windermere Road and South Apopka Vineland Road after the Lake County Sheriff's Office said it deployed stop sticks on the vehicle.
Once the vehicle was stopped, officers said that they found drug needles and an infant inside. The infant was not harmed.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office tells News 6 that the Florida Department of Children and Family's had been looking for Maldonado for weeks, adding the infant had never received any pre-or post-natal care.
News 6 searched court records and found that Maldonado has been arrested in Orange County six times in the past six years for felony drug possession. She also had two prior arrests for fleeing and eluding officers in Lake County.
Investigators said Maldonado had an active warrant for a drug charge in Orange County at the time of her arrest on Tuesday.
Court records show that Maldonado failed to appear in an Orange County courtroom on June 11, 2018 for a hearing regarding a felony possession of heroin charge.
Lake County said that Maldonado was arrested Tuesday for fleeing and eluding, as well as aggravated child abuse.