Naples Mayor to plead no contest to DUI charge, serve 12 months probation

NAPLES, Fla — Naples Mayor, Teresa Heitmann, will plead no contest to a 2024 DUI arrest, according to court documents.

She will be adjudicated guilty, and will be sentenced to 12 months probation and undergo a substance abuse evaluation.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Heitmann will pay a $1,000 fine. She will have her driver's license revoked for 6 months and then have 6 months of ignition interlock on her vehicle, which will prevent it from starting if her blood-alcohol level is above a certain limit. The plea also says Heitmann cannot be in possession of alcohol or consume it in public. There's also an order for her to complete DUI School, which court records show she has already done.

Hetimann's lawyers will enter her plea to the judge on Monday morning. That's when her trial was set to begin. Under the plea, Heitmann does not have to be in the courtroom.

The plea brings an end to a legal process that has lasted a year-and-a-half.

Heitmann was arrested on August 28, 2024. This dash camera video shows her interaction with Naples Police Officers:

The arrest report said Heitmann drove her car into a yard on 16th Avenue South and didn’t seem to know how she got there. Officers noted that she had slurred speech and watery eyes. Heitmann told them someone cut her off at a nearby roundabout, according to the report.

She pled not guilty to the DUI charge.

A week later, Heitmann spoke about the arrest briefly at the Naples City Council meeting. She vowed to continue serving the city as mayor.

"I take my responsibilities in the public role seriously," she said in the meeting. "I have full remorse. The toll this has taken on my family cannot easily be put into words."

Naples Community Correspondent, Mahmoud Bennett, was at city hall that day, and reported that Heitmann appeared emotional as she spoke:

As the legal process played out, Fox 4 requested the 911 call from Heitmann's arrest. In the recording the caller told dispatchers, “Yeah, um, I think the mayor is drunk,” adding, “She was literally almost running into my Jeep and followed me home… seems intoxicated.”

Heitmann can be heard in the background denying the claim, saying, “I am not.”

Listen to the 911 call here:

Last month in court, Heitmann's lawyers tried to get some evidence thrown out of her case. They questioned why she was ever detained beyond the crash investigation without being read her Miranda rights, and suggested it was unfair because the investigation shifted from a possible crash to a criminal case around a possible DUI without her knowledge.

Click to listen to the responding officers testimony in court:

The judge decided the officers reasonably detained Heitmann and followed standard procedures, rejecting her attorney's motion to suppress evidence.

That set the stage for Heitmann's trial, which was supposed to start Monday. Instead, her lawyers will enter her new plea. Under the agreement, Heitmann can still appeal.

Fox 4 will continue our coverage of the mayor's arrest and will be in court on Monday morning.