David Cassidy arrested on DUI charge, plans to fight it

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David Cassidy, the man ‘The Partridge Family’ made famous, was arrested Wednesday in Florida on suspicion of DUI and spent nine hours in a county jail before posting $350 bail.

The Florida Highway Patrol said the actor and singer failed a field sobriety test and two breath tests after being pulled over around 6 p.m. for driving erratically on the turnpike in Fort Lauderdale. Officers said they found a half-empty bottle of bourbon in the backseat of Cassidy’s white Mercedes.

According to an arrest report obtained by People, Cassidy allegedly crossed the center divider line, then cut off another driver while attempting to merge onto an exit ramp. He was charged with DUI, failure to maintain a single lane and having an open container.

Cassidy, 60, says he was not drunk and intends to fight the charges, his rep, Jo-Ann Geffen, told TMZ. He told police he had had a glass of wine at lunch and took a hydrocodone pill in the afternoon for back pain. But Cassidy says the results of two breath tests -- both around 0.14 -- are inaccurate.

‘He would never jeopardize anyone on the road, and he would not have been driving had he not had to go to a funeral,’ Geffen said. Cassidy lives in Fort Lauderdale with his wife, songwriter Sue Shifrin-Cassidy.

-- Christie D’Zurilla

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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