According to court records, a Texas state senator, who has been in his office since 2013, was pulled over and jailed on Tuesday for a DUI.
Texas state Senator Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown) was arrested by members of the Austin Police Department for driving while intoxicated just after midnight on Tuesday. He was being held at Travis County Jail, records show.
The 52-year-old has been charged with driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor in the state, after he was stopped while driving in Austin’s Hyde Park neighborhood almost an hour after midnight, according to court records.
According to Schwertner’s arrest affidavit obtained by the Austin American-Statesman, officers had observed a 2022 black Cadillac “swerving to the right and left and split the two lanes repeatedly.”
When officers stopped the vehicle, the senator was observed with bloodshot, glassy, and watery eyes. The affidavit also said that he was confused, slurring his speech, and that he “also had a strong odor of alcoholic beverage on his breath.”
Scwertner was set to preside over a Senate committee meeting at 11 a.m., according to the Austin American-Statesman. The hearing would have discussed the state’s power grid and recent outages caused by winter weather.
This isn’t the first time Scwertner has been the focus of an unflattering headline. In 2018, he was accused of inappropriately texting a University of Texas graduate student. The texts allegedly included sexually explicit messages and photos of his genitals, Fox News reported at the time.
The allegations resulted in a review carried out by the school, which determined that it was “plausible” a third party sent the messages to the student from an application that both it and the senator were able to access, The Texas Tribune reported.
However, school officials did share that Scwertner was not cooperative in the review.
Scwertner was released from Travis County Jail after being put on $3,000 bail, which was posted within hours, jail records show.
Scwertner and members of his office have not commented on his Tuesday morning arrest and DUI charge. However, attorney Perry Minton, who represents the senator, shared a statement with the Austin-American Statesman.
“I met with Senator Schwertner very early this morning, directly after his unfortunate arrest. He was certainly humble and embarrassed by his circumstances, but he was clear-eyed, sober, and making good sense,” Minton said. “Because of this, we'll be interested in the discovery once it becomes available.”
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