OKEECHOBEE — James Sweat Jr. was sentenced to one month in county jail after pleading no contest to habitual driving without a license. A DUI charge was dropped.

Sweat, who is 74 years old, was arrested in March after a 911 caller reported an impaired driver. The caller followed the vehicle as it drove out of Basswood and headed toward town.  The caller told dispatch the vehicle was a pickup truck. She added that the truck pulled into the Sunoco gas station on U.S. 98 and then went back toward Basswood. The caller said the pickup almost hit another vehicle head-on as it went back into Basswood. The caller gave dispatch the tag number from the vehicle and said it was parked in a driveway.

Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Deputy Skylar Casian was first to arrive at the home on Northwest 37^th Avenue. He allegedly found Sweat asleep behind the wheel of his truck. The keys were in the ignition, but the vehicle was turned off.

The deputy knocked on the window, and Sweat woke up, opened the door, and told the deputy he was listening to music. He reportedly told the deputy he had been at Shenanigans, a local bar, and drank an unknown number of Bud Light drafts. He drove home and just sat there listening to music.

Because he reportedly had slurred speech and smelled of alcohol, the deputy asked him if he would perform a field sobriety test.

After the tests, he was arrested and charged with DUI and driving without a license/habitual offender.

His breath test results were reported to be 0.252 and 0.250.