CEO who runs Florida muni course sentenced to four years in prison for felony golf cart DUI

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — The CEO of the company that runs the Flagler Beach municipal golf course was sentenced on Tuesday to four years in prison for felony driving under the influence, two years after he was found hunched over the wheel of a golf cart smelling of alcohol.

Terrence McManus, 56, is the CEO of Flagler Golf Management, which runs the city’s nine-hole Ocean Palm Golf Course since leasing it in 2015. The lease runs for 15 years.

McManus, who still faces a charge of insurance fraud in an unrelated case, pleaded with Circuit Judge Christopher France to send him to an 18-month-long inpatient treatment center in Orlando for substance abuse instead of prison.

“I’m begging for it,” McManus said. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at my past and realize that I have a long history of a battle with alcohol.”

On Tuesday afternoon, McManus had turned down an offer from prosecutors to serve two years in prison followed by three years of probation for both the driving under the influence as well as the insurance fraud case.

McManus’ defense attorney, Matthew Maguire summoned a therapist,  Drew Breznitsky, to the witness stand at the Kim C. Hammond Justice Center in Bunnell. Breznitsky testified that McManus suffered from PTSD and alcohol, cocaine and cannabis use disorders.

McManus testified he had been raised by a single mother and had a difficult early life but had been doing better until his arrest. He said he has a growing family with a daughter attending law school and a son serving in the Marine Corps.

But Assistant State Attorney James Nealis recounted McManus’s criminal record dating back to a 1993 conviction for robbery and dealing in stolen property. Nealis also said that McManus was charged with driving under the influence in 2003 and  2007, driving with a suspended license in 2011, and with boating under the influence in 2017.

Nealis said McManus had not sought treatment after those cases.

“Mr. McManus, is it your contention that post-traumatic stress caused you to drive that golf cart that night?” Nealis said.

“It’s my contention that I wasn’t driving a golf cart that night,” McManus replied.

McManus said the golf cart was broken down or stuck in the sand and no one was driving it.

A jury decided otherwise and convicted McManus of felony driving under the influence and prior refusal to submit to testing.

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Nealis said during his closing argument at the sentencing that McManus still was not accepting the jury’s verdict.

The case began when a Flagler Beach police officer found McManus hunched over the wheel of the golf cart at 1:32 a.m. on July 24, 2019. The golf cart was mired in soft sand in a construction zone in the 1700 block of South Oceanshore Blvd., which had been closed to traffic as crews repaired road damage from Hurricane Matthew.

McManus’s speech was slurred and he kept saying “sorry” to the officer. When the officer asked for his driver’s license, McManus handed over a credit card. McManus refused to provide a breathalyzer sample. McManus breath smelled of alcohol, according to the officer’s report. McManus had trouble getting out of the cart and had to hold onto it to stand, a report said.

The prosecutor said McManus had received breaks in the past and it was time he received prison time and asked he be sentenced to five years. The defense attorney asked the judge to impose probation, saying McManus was willing to plead in the other case so the probation could be even longer

Before sentencing, France asked McManus why he had not sought treatment for substance abuse. McManus said he couldn’t afford the treatment or that he was too busy tending to his businesses, including a real estate firm and a dock repair company. He said his business is suffering now and he is losing clients because he is in jail. He also said he was trying to separate himself in “an amicable way” from his lease with the city of Flagler Beach’s nine-hole golf course.

France adjudicated McManus guilty and sentenced him to 48 months in state prison for driving under the influence.

“The defendant for 22 years has been involved in incidents where he’s violated the law,” France said. The judge said McManus had the time and resources in the past to get the treatment he was now asking for.

France also sentenced McManus to 364 days in the Flagler County Jail on the prior refusal to submit charge. The terms are to run concurrently.  McManus received credit for 107 days already served in the county jail.

McManus also was charged in 2020 with insurance fraud under $20,000, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and false report of a crime, a first-degree misdemeanor. McManus is accused of filing a false insurance claim for a skid steer, according to a report from the Flagler Beach Police Department. The machine looks like a small bulldozer.

McManus has a hearing on that case set for Nov. 2.

“It is what it is”

Flagler Beach City Manager William Whitson said on Tuesday before the sentencing hearing that the city was waiting to see what happens with the fraud charge against McManus before determining what to do about his relationship with the city golf course. He said the DUI was not enough to fire McManus.

“It’s not grounds to terminate a contract or take any kind of action on the city’s part,” Whitson said. “But a fraud charge may potentially hold that option out for the commission.”

Whitson said McManus has appointed someone to act in his place as the golf course manager, which has been checked and is legal. He also said the city is looking at the status of the golf course’s liquor license.

“It’s raising our attention level and we are going to follow up,” he said.

The agreement with the city calls for McManus to pay the city after he clears expenses at the golf course, Whitson said. He said the city has an auditor examining operations at the city’s golf course.

“It’s an embarrassing situation and we are not proud of it,” Whitson said. “But it is what it is.”