Austin Police arrested state Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, early Tuesday morning and charged him with a misdemeanor of driving while intoxicated.
Schwertner was arrested at 2:12 a.m. Tuesday. The senator was still being held in the Travis County Jail and bail had not been set as of 8:30 a.m., according to Travis County Sheriff records. Austin police spokesman Brandon Jones said that police stopped Schwertner around 12:45 a.m. Tuesday near the intersection of West 45th Street and Avenue B and arrested him shortly after the stop.
Schwertner was set to preside over an 11 a.m. Senate committee meeting on the state's power grid and recent winter outages, including those involving Austin energy. It was unclear if the meeting would proceed in his absence.
Additionally, the Senate Finance committee is meeting at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, a committee that Schwertner is a member of.
Schwertner's office did not immediately respond to the Statesman's request for comment.
Prior to the 2019 legislative session, Schwertner asked Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick not to reappoint him as chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee for the upcoming session amid allegations that he sent a sexually explicit text message and an image to a University of Texas graduate student.
More:Amid scandal, Schwertner gives up gavel
Schwertner was first elected to the Texas House in 2010 and then to the senate in 2012, where he's served for the past 10 years. He was reelected last year and his current term ends in 2026.
Check back for more on this developing story.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Charles Schwertner, Texas senator, arrested, charged with DWI
