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Police: Cocoa Beach hit-and-run suspect caught driving with suspended license

COCOA BEACH, Fla. — A Cocoa Beach woman accused of a New Year's Eve hit-and-run is back in jail, Channel 9 has learned.
 
Michelle Simkins has a suspended license, but police said that didn't stop her from getting behind the wheel again.
 
Cocoa Beach police spotted Simkins leaving the Inner Room Cabaret. The officer who saw Simkins said he knew she had a suspended license, but before he could activate his lights and sirens, he said she took off.
 
Officers said they found her later at the Fawlty Towers Motel on the Cocoa Beach Causeway, where she nearly hit a marked patrol car.
 
Simkins appeared Monday in front of a judge and the assistant state attorney called her a danger to the public. He said Simkins' actions in the two cases speak for themselves.
 
Simkins shook her head as a judge read the latest charges against her, including leaving the scene of a crash with property damage, fleeing and eluding and reckless driving.
 
She had just bonded out of jail a little more than a week ago in connection with a New Year's Eve hit-and-run crash that left 12-year-old Thomas Gregory with serious injuries.
 
"(I've) got to tell you, it's somewhat depressing, if you will, that someone can't control themselves any better than this," said Gregory's father, Jeff. "I think if you look at it, she got a second chance to be out, and she's proven apparently that she needs to be back behind bars."
 
A judge granted Simkins a $100,000 bond on the newest charges but  revoked bond in the New Year's Eve case.
 

 Related Story: Arrest made in New Year's Eve hit-and-run in Cocoa Beach

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