License suspended 5x so woman caught sleeping behind the wheel gave cop “an inmate ID card” instead

By LENNY COHEN

OCALA, Fla. (CohenConnect) – Her SUV was reportedly running but the woman in the driver’s seat wasn’t going anywhere, except to jail.

A police officer in Florida got the call about someone “passed out behind the wheel of a running vehicle,” last Wednesday morning, Aug. 28.

He arrived to find a woman “sitting in the driver’s seat of a red Ford Escape,” the arrest report said. “The vehicle was running with the keys in the ignition.

“I was able to rouse the female from her slumber,” the officer wrote.

Then, “I asked her if she was fine, and she said that she was just tired.

“When asked for her driver’s license, the female provided me with an inmate ID card for Samantha Schlentner.

“The inmate ID did match the female sitting in the front seat of the vehicle.

“I asked if she had a driver’s license, and she told me no.

“When I checked Samantha’s information on [the police computer], it showed her to have a suspended license and five prior suspensions.

“Her last suspension was on 10/06/2022 for violation of Chapter 893, Controlled Substances.”

Samantha Lynne Schlentner’s first booking photo (clockwise from top left) was for violating her probation on a drug charge in 2010.Photo by(Marion Co. Sheriff’s Office | Fla. Dept. of Corrections)

Schlentner’s troubles in Marion County goes back to at least 2010 (clockwise from top left), when she was charged with violating her probation for possession of a controlled substance.

That was followed by simple battery in 2011 and simple domestic battery in 2012.

In May 2015, Schlentner was charged with habitually driving with a suspended license. That July, she was arrested on a bench warrant for failure to appear on that charge, and in August, she was charged with driving with a suspended license with a prior offense.

Schlentner faced four charges in 2021: introducing contraband into a correctional institution, possession of fentanyl, possession of drug paraphernalia, and child neglect.

In 2022, she was charged with trafficking in fentanyl and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Then, later that year, she was sentenced to two years in state prison for possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and attempted trafficking 4 to 13 grams of fentanyl.

The next year, Schlentner was returned for court for an unexplained reason.

She was released this past Jan. 19, and charged with battery and simple assault in April.

This latest time, Schlentner, 36, was only was charged with driving with a suspended license-third or subsequent offense, and she was released early Saturday, after two-and-a-half days in jail.