ST. PETE BEACH — Pinellas deputies on Tuesday arrested a Clearwater firefighter accused of driving under the influence, possessing cocaine and resisting arrest.

According to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, a concerned citizen noticed about 6 p.m. a driver who turned out to be Andrew Leeth, 35, unresponsive behind the wheel of a 2001 Chevrolet Silverado. The truck was stopped in an eastbound turn lane on Boca Ciega Drive near the intersection of 75th Avenue.

Deputies arrived and found him slumped over the wheel with the truck in drive. No one else was inside. Leeth had bloodshot, watery eyes, deputies said, and the smell of alcohol was coming from his breath. Leeth was taken to Palms of Pasadena Hospital as a precaution.

The investigation continued while waiting for Leeth to be medically cleared. The firefighter refused to submit a blood sample and tried to leave the hospital.

Deputies told him to stop. When he refused and ran toward the exit, they used a Taser, according to the Sheriff's Office. He was taken back into custody and arrested on DUI and resisting arrest charges. A deputy also found cocaine ground into the back seat of her cruiser that wasn't there before Leeth had been inside, according to an arrest report.

Leeth was booked into the Pinellas County Jail and released early Wednesday after meeting $2,650 bail.

Clearwater Fire & Rescue spokesman Rob Shaw said Wednesday afternoon that Leeth was put on administrative duty. He was hired in March 2007 and makes $65,249 a year. He is assigned to Fire Station 47, 1460 Lakeview Road, as a firefighter-paramedic and was not certified as a driver-operator.

Court records show Leeth had another DUI arrest in 2009 that led to a conviction two years later. He has also been arrested on trespassing, open container and disorderly conduct charges since 2005. None led to convictions, and he was found not guilty in the open container case.

Chief Scott Ehlers declined to comment, as did Sean Becker, president of Clearwater Fire Fighters Association, pending the results of an internal investigation. Leeth could not be reached for comment.

City Manager Bill Horne released this statement about the arrest:

"We are troubled by the allegations against one of our employees," he said. "The city's human resources department has placed the employee on administrative duty, removing him from his fire medic duties as we conduct an internal investigation.

"We have nearly 200 employees who represent the fire department and our city in the finest of ways on and off duty every day," Horne continued. "We expect better from our staff."

The department has been mired in controversy over the last several years, most recently last month, when a city audit showed the agency had mistakenly paid $218,766 in benefits and incentives to current and former employees.

Organizational psychologists recently evaluated the department following several sexual misconduct cases and reports of low morale. They found that only about a third of Fire & Rescue employees had a positive impression of the workplace.

Contact Kathryn Varn at kvarn@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8913. Follow @kathrynvarn.