While she waited for an ambulance to take her unconscious husband to a hospital in the early-morning hours after Thanksgiving, Tiger Woods’ wife went into their Isleworth home, retrieved two small bottles of pain pills and said he had taken some earlier.
Elin Woods also tried to ride in the ambulance that took her husband to the hospital, but the crew wouldn’t let her, saying it was a case of domestic violence — although officials later were confused because they found no evidence to support that.
Those are among the new details in investigative records released Friday by the Florida Highway Patrol after a public-records request by the Orlando Sentinel.
Woods was injured in a Nov. 27 car crash in which he tried to drive away from his south Orange County mansion about 2:30 a.m. but bounced off two curbs, ran through a row of shrubs, hit a fire hydrant and crashed into a neighbor’s tree.
Police ticketed him for careless driving, and he paid a $164 fine.
The records released Friday included several new details:
— Troopers began searching for evidence that Woods was drunk or under the influence of drugs about an hour before they announced his accident.
— Officers looked for evidence of domestic violence but found none.
— Elin Woods told officers she heard her husband’s accident, then got into a golf cart and went looking for the accident site.
— Officers calculated that Woods was driving between 29 mph and 37 mph.
— Troopers asked Woods’ attorney for video of the crash, which should have been captured by at least two of his home-security cameras.
The afternoon of the crash, FHP troopers tried to get medical records from Woods’ hospital, Health Central in Ocoee, according to the paperwork.
An emergency-room nurse, however, said the records department was closed and that the troopers would have to come back the following Monday.
Troopers did, arriving about 7 a.m. Nov. 30, the first business day after the crash.
“The director of medical records at first stated their computer system was not working, then she stated that they would not provide that information without a warrant on [Tiger Woods] regarding whether or not medical blood had been drawn,” FHP Cpl. Thomas DeWitt wrote.
Two FHP captains then went to the Orange-Osceola state attorney’s office and asked it to subpoena Woods’ medical records, but Asst. State Atty. Steve Foster said there was insufficient evidence.
The following day, FHP declared its investigation closed and wrote Woods the ticket.
Officers made some attempt to check for signs of domestic violence, according to the report. They looked but found no broken glass in the mansion’s driveway. When they talked to Elin Woods the evening of the crash, they noted that there were no signs of injuries to her face, neck or hands.
It was not clear why the ambulance crew concluded that the golfer’s injuries were a result of domestic violence and, as a result, barred Elin Woods from their vehicle.
Law enforcement officers heard no one at the scene say the couple had been fighting, according to the FHP paperwork.
Tiger Woods, during an emotional public apology Feb. 19, said emphatically that his wife had not attacked him.
Windermere police, the first to arrive at the scene, found Woods lying on the pavement, his wife hovering over him, according to the records.
She heard the crash, she told Windermere Officer Brandon McDonnell, then she got into a golf cart and drove to find the crash scene, the report says.
She didn’t have to go far. Her husband’s black Cadillac Escalade had come to a standstill after traveling about 150 feet and striking a tree in a neighbor’s front yard.
She broke out the vehicle’s rear windows using a golf club, she told Windermere officers, then helped her husband from the SUV, him leaning against her, and he collapsed onto the pavement, according to FHP records.
Officers found the golf club near the driver’s door.
Tiger Woods was unconscious and shoeless. Neighbors brought out a blanket and pillow, and Elin Woods brought him a pair of socks before the ambulance carried him away, according to the records.
Another Windermere police officer, Jason Sipos, talked to Elin Woods, according to the FHP paperwork.
“He asked [Elin Woods] if he had been drinking and she stated no, that he had taken his medication earlier, but did not provide a time. The medication was Vicodin,” the report said.
She went inside and retrieved two small bottles to show to the ambulance crew.
McDonnell told troopers that he didn’t smell alcohol on Tiger Woods or in the SUV.
Woods’ home has four security cameras. Woods’ lawyer, Mark NeJame, told troopers that he would provide them video from the system. But after having problems trying to decipher it, he apparently never did.
The day FHP made its request for the video, NeJame said he tried but could not figure out how to operate the system. Five hours later, a woman from his office called troopers, saying they still couldn’t figure it out but would call the next day.
FHP’s paperwork makes no further mention of the video.
NeJame would not answer questions Friday.
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