Counting 'em Down: For better or for worse, this is the Headline Surfer countdown of 2021's Top 100 biggest news stories of Central Florida along the tourism-driven stretch of Interstate 4 (Orlando Attractions and east to I-95 & the World's Most Famous Beach in Daytona). Each recap segment is posted with its own headline, culminating with the unveiling of No. 1. Each segment includes a 2022 update.
Photos for Headline Surfer / ABOVE: Mugshots of retired NY Yankees & Boston Red Sox baseball; player Johnny Damon, and his wife, Michelle, Mangan-Damon, after he was pulled over on Feb. 18, 2021, in Windemere, Florida on DUI-related charges. He's also shown speaking briefly with reporters after bonding out of jail the next day. His wife was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer. Most of the charges were later dismissed. Johnny Damon entered into a pre-trial diversion program and the main DUI charge was dismissed after he completed his probation as part of the agreement. LEFT: Johnny Damon won a World Series title as a member of the Boston Red Sox in 2004, and a World Series with the NY Yankees in 2009.
By HENRY FREDERICK / Headline Surfer
WINDEMERE, Fla. -- Retired Major League Baseball player Johnny Damon was pulled over back in February of 2021 after Windemere cops said they saw his SUV swerving and hitting a curb his SUV swerving and hitting a curb.
The former Yankees and Red Sox player reportedly had a blood alcohol level between .294 and .300 — nearly four times the state limit of .08.
Damon, 47, was charged by Windemere cops on Feb. 18, with DUI and running a stop sign, and his wife, Michelle Mangan-Damon, was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence.
A two-time all-star and two-time World Series winner over an 18-year career that ended in 2012, Damon is a native of Orlando. He also has a vacation home in New Smyrna Beach.
Damon’s post-MLB pursuits have also included being part of the 2015 cast of “Celebrity Apprentice,” which starred Trump. Shortly before Election Day in 2016, Damon appeared with Trump at an Orlando rally in which he praised the GOP nominee’s support for the military and led the crowd in chanting, “Build that wall!”
Why is the Trump reference relevant to Damon's DUI arrest?
In Windemere Police body-cam footage obtained by Headline Surfer, Damon asserts, “I know people are trying to target me because I’m a Trump supporter.”
To which one of the Windemere cops responds, “I don’t think that has anything to do with it.”
Damon replies, “Yeah, it does.”
The cop shoots back with, “That’s neither here nor there right now. That’s not why I’m stopping you.”
During his arrest, Damon describes himself as pro-police, according to the bodycam footage.
The lengthy body-cam video starts with an officer approaching Damon’s Lincoln SUV and immediately encountering trouble as Damon tries to get out of the car and Mangan-Damon gets out from the passenger side out and walks over to one of the cops.
“What’s happening right now?” she asks.
Eventually, they both get back into the SUV and the officer explains that he pulled Damon over because he was swerving and hit a curb.
Damon initially comes across as confused: “What traffic stop?” he asks minutes after being pulled over.
The conversation doesn’t get too far before Mangan-Damon gets out of the car again and tries to walk toward the security stand at their gated housing complex.
The officer grabs her wrist and tells her to get back in the vehicle.
It's difficult from the video to see exactly what transpires next, but according to the arrest affidavit, Johnny Damon approaches as the officer attempts to pull Mangan-Damon and in return, Mangon-Damon grabs the cop's left arm while pulling away and pushing.
“Don’t touch me!" Damon's wife. Don’t (expletive) touch me!"
The report said Damon also becomes “entangled” in the situation. Mangon-Damon then breaks away from the officer and begins walking toward the community’s guardhouse.
The initial cop focuses his attention on getting Damon secured while a second officer arrives and prepares to take his wife into custody, to which the husband states,
“OK, we are at home right now. I don’t know what you’re doing. Damon then adds, “Hey babe, walk home. Babe, walk home.”
As his wife is being handcuffed, a struggle appears to ensue between Damon and the first officer, which causes his body camera to fall to the ground.
Johnny Damon then says, "“Believe me, I am Blue Lives Matter. Then Damon asks, “What are you doing right now? We are all for cops. Guys, we are all for cops.”
Mangon-Damon can be heard in the background repeatedly telling the officers to look at their Blue Lives Matter license plate.
“Like, this is crazy!” she says.
Damon repeatedly insists that he and his wife don’t want any problems.
“Hey, we are good people," Damon says. "We are good people, I’m telling you... we’re good people."
He adds that his wife is “crazy” and a “tough girl” who “fights all the time.”
That's when Damon brings up politics and Trump.
“Hey bro, I’m a good (expletive) guy and I know people are trying to target me because I’m a Trump supporter,” Damon says, adding later, “Bro, we’re great people and I don’t (expletive) around.”
Footage from Damon’s field sobriety test begins about 23 minutes into the nearly two-hour video. It shows Damon claiming he’s “healthy as hell,” “(expletive) sober” and able to “run a 4.2 (second) 40 (yard dash) right now.”
In the video, Damon laughs while trying to follow the officer’s flashlight with his eyes only and not his head as instructed and has trouble maintaining balance and following the instructions for each exercise.
“Yeah, I’m good bro,” Damon says repeatedly.
In the video, Damon laughs while trying to follow the officer’s flashlight with his eyes only and not his head as instructed and has trouble maintaining balance and following the instructions for each exercise. “Yeah, I’m good bro,” Damon says repeatedly.
Damon admits to having “a little bit” to drink and claims he and his wife had been at “London House,” which he describes this way, according to his arrest affidavit: “It’s a guy who had a lot of money to uh I don’t know, take care of taxes so he’s uh, we were just having a good time there."
Meanwhile, the second cop is dealing with Damon's wife.
When told she's was under arrest, Mangan-Damon responds, “No, I’m not. No, I have to go home to my (six) children!"
Mangan-Damon said the couple had left their children with their 21-year-old nanny and she wanted officers to explain to her children why they weren’t coming home.
Windermere cops discuss among themselves who would go to the Damon home and inform the nanny of the couple’s arrest. A security guard at the gated community was able to get the nanny on the phone so officers could inform her that the children’s parents would not be returning home that night.
Damon repeatedly pleads with the cops as a favor to him not to take his wife to jail.
The Damons are subsequently transported to the cop shop DUI testing center. The couple continue to try and ask the transporting officer why Mangan-Damon was being arrested because “she was a passenger.” The officer tries to explain that she was accused of assaulting him but she continues interrupting him.
“Because you grabbed on to me and pushed ...” he answers before she cuts him off mid-sentence by repeating the same question.
The officer turns up his radio to drown out the drama of the Damons discussing their situation in the back of the patrol car.
Mangan-Damon asked if the officer knows who her husband is, and after he responds that he “has no idea (who he is),” she starts listing off his baseball accomplishments and charity work.
“I support police 100%,” Mangan-Damon says in response to the officer telling her battery on law enforcement is a felony. She then asks yet again why she was arrested if she was “just a passenger.”
Damon bonded out of jail on Feb. 19, and briefly spoke to reporters after he walked out of the Orange County Jail in Orlando after posting bail, stating succinctly: “Jail sucks; handcuffs are worse.”
Damon bonded out of jail on Feb. 19, and briefly spoke to reporters after he walked out of the Orange County Jail in Orlando after posting bail, stating succinctly: “Jail sucks; handcuffs are worse.”
2022 update on criminal charges:
Orange County Clerk of the Court records show Johnny Damon is not going to be charged with resisting an officer without violence, but he was issued a traffic ticket for running a stop sign. He entered a plea of not guilty on the DUI charge and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, including 50 hours of community service, enrolling in a DUI offender class, and paying court fees with the case dismissed after 12 months.
Initial charges of battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence were dismissed by prosecutors against Damon's wife, Michelle Mangan-Damon.
Multimedia:
YouTube embedding / Headline Surfer video / Windemere Police body-cam footage of the DUI arrest of retired MLB star Johnny Damon on Feb. 18, 2021.
About the Byline Writer: Henry Frederick is a member of the working press and publisher of Headline Surfer, the award-winning 24/7 internet news outlet launched in 2008, that serves greater Daytona Beach, Sanford & Orlando from Lake Mary, Florida via HeadlineSurfer.com. Frederick has amassed close to 150 award-winning bylines in print & online. He earned his Master of Arts in New Media Journalism from Full Sail University in 2019. He was a breaking news reporter (metro cops & courts beat) for the Daytona Beach News-Journal for nearly a decade. And Before that worked the same beat for The Journal-News/Gannett Suburban Newspapers in Rockland/Westchester counties, NY, dating back to 1989. Having witnessed the execution of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Florida's death chamber and covering other high profile cases, Frederick has appeared on national crime documentary shows on Discovery ID, Reelz, and the Oxygen Network series "Snapped" for his analysis. • Award-Winning Journalism: Florida Press Club recognizes Headline Surfer for nine stories in 2020 statewide competition. • Award-Winning Journalism of Henry Frederick.