FORT LAUDERDALE — When witnesses were asked to review a photo line-up for a haphazard driver on Interstate 595, they identified 1970s teen heartthrob David Cassidy.
Police say he sideswiped a truck, stopped and attempted to cover his license plate before driving away with a flat tire.
Cassidy, 65, a Fort Lauderdale resident since 2002, has been charged with leaving the scene of the Sept. 9 accident and driving with an expired tag, both misdemeanors. He also was cited for making an improper lane change and driving with a suspended license.
The Broward State Attorney's Office filed the charges Wednesday. An arraignment hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 27.
Jason Forman, Cassidy's lawyer, disputed police, saying his client provided his driver license and registration information before driving to a hospital to make a visit unrelated to the crash.
"There's certainly a lot of major inconsistencies in the report," Forman said Friday.
Cassidy, who crooned "I Think I Love You" and had a four-year run starring on television's "The Partridge Family" has chalked up three DUI arrests since 2010 in Florida, New York and California.
But he wasn't suspected of using alcohol or drugs – and wasn't tested for either – when an officer caught up with him at Cleveland Clinic in Weston about 90 minutes after the noon collision, police said.
According to a Florida Highway Patrol report, a silver Kia Sportage was westbound on I-595 "traveling at a high rate of speed, in and out of traffic" when it changed lanes and sideswiped a 2013 International delivery truck.
The truck's driver, Pedro Vargas, 47, of Pembroke Pines, suffered minor injuries and was taken to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.
The report described the Kia's driver as a clean-shaven "older caucasian male" wearing blue jeans and a gray shirt.
It said he got out of his vehicle, "attempted to cover [the Kia's] tag number then fled the scene in [the Kia] with a flat tire and right-side damage."
A witness snapped a cellphone picture of the Kia's tag, which was used to link Cassidy to the vehicle. Police immediately issued a "be on the lookout" bulletin for the Kia and the driver.
A Broward sheriff's deputy later spotted the damaged Kia parked near the Cleveland Clinic's entrance and found Cassidy on the fourth floor. It was later discovered that the 2014 Kia Sportage's registration had expired Aug. 31, 2014.
The police report lists Cassidy's current address as the Harbor Beach home that he recently put up for auction.
Cassidy, who is in the midst of a divorce from his wife Susan, filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, listing assets and liabilities at more than $1 million.
A bankruptcy judge last month approved a $2 million bid on the five-bedroom waterfront home.
Cassidy was convicted of a drunken driving charge after he was stopped on Florida's Turnpike in St. Lucie County in 2010. That was followed by an August 2013 arrest in upstate New York after Cassidy failed a roadside sobriety test.
Most recently, Cassidy was reportedly arrested for another DUI in Los Angles and in March 2014 was sentenced to five years probation.
tealanez@tribpub.com, 954-356-4542 or Twitter @talanez
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