State Sen. Charles Schwertner arrested on suspicion of drunken driving

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State Sen. Charles Schwertner was arrested early Tuesday morning on suspicion of driving whereas intoxicated, in keeping with Travis County sheriff’s workplace data.

Schwertner, a Georgetown Republican, was booked into the Travis County jail at 2:12 a.m. and charged with driving whereas intoxicated. As of 8:30 a.m., data confirmed Schwertner was nonetheless in Travis County sheriff’s custody. He is an orthopedic surgeon by commerce.

Schwertner’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from The Texas Tribune.

The news was first reported on Twitter by the Austin American-Statesman.

Schwertner, who leads the Senate’s Business and Commerce Committee, was anticipated on the Capitol at 11 a.m. Tuesday when the Senate reconvenes for the week. The Business and Commerce Committee additionally has a scheduled listening to to debate proposed adjustments by the state’s Public Utilities Commission to the vitality market’s design that stemmed from failures that led to thousands and thousands of individuals dropping energy throughout the state through the 2021 winter freeze. Schwertner, who has served within the Senate since 2013, has expressed dissatisfaction with these adjustments.

Schwertner, 52, has confronted different scandals up to now. In 2018, he was accused of sending sexually explicit photos of his genitals to a graduate student on the University of Texas. He denied the allegations, saying that another person despatched the messages utilizing his LinkedIn account and one other privateness cellphone messaging app that belongs to him.

A university investigation, which described the senator as uncooperative, didn’t clear Schwertner of wrongdoing however stated it couldn’t show Schwertner despatched the texts.

After the sexual harassment allegation, Schwertner voluntarily gave up his chairmanship of the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee to work on different points within the Legislature and spend extra time along with his household. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Senate, adopted the investigation carefully.

Patrick has not commented on Schwertner’s arrest, and his workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

In 2016, after Austin voters authorised stricter necessities for drivers that prompted Uber and Lyft to depart city, Schwertner spearheaded Senate legislation designed to create statewide rules that will enable the businesses to return to town. The invoice aimed to make sure the businesses had the identical guidelines in each metropolis in Texas. When he argued for the invoice within the Legislature, he stated ride-hailing firms supplied transportation to individuals who in any other case “are getting in vehicles and driving drunk.”

Other state lawmakers have confronted drunken driving costs in recent times. Former state Rep. Dan Huberty, a Houston Republican, was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated in April 2021. He determined to retire later that 12 months.

In 2017, state Rep. Victoria Neave Criado, a Dallas Democrat, was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated. She stays within the Legislature.

Such arrests have additionally been used as political assaults. In 2013, Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat, was arrested for and pleaded responsible to drunken driving. Then-Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, demanded her resignation and threatened to make use of his line-item veto energy to chop funding to the workplace’s Public Accountability Office if she didn’t resign. When Lehmberg didn’t resign, Perry defunded the unit. He was later indicted in relation to the transfer however was cleared of costs.

Disclosure: Lyft and the University of Texas at Austin has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news group that’s funded partially by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Find a whole list of them here.