State senator apologizes for ‘mistake’ after arrest on DWI charge
State Sen. Charles Schwertner was arrested early Tuesday on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, police records show.
The Georgetown Republican was booked at 2:12 a.m., according to the Travis County Sheriff ’s Office. He was still in custody as Capitol staffers returned to work Tuesday, but a judge granted him a personal bond around noon. The arrangement allows Schwertner to leave jail without paying a fee.
Austin Police Department officers stopped Schwertner just before 1 a.m., a spokesperson for the department said.
The senator’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I am deeply sorry,” Schwertner told a Fox TV journalist as he was released from jail Tuesday. “I’m apologetic to my citizens and my family. I made a mistake.”
Schwertner, 52, was first elected to the Texas Senate in 2012. Before that, he served a term in the Texas House of Representatives.
He is an orthopedic surgeon by trade and serves as the chair of the Senate’s Business and Commerce Committee, which was scheduled to meet at 11 a.m. Tuesday to discuss the state’s electric grid.
The hearing went on as planned, with Sen. Phil King, R-Weathorford and vice chair of the committee, taking the helm instead.
“The chair, as you know, is not going to be able to be with us today,” King said, without going into further detail.
The Austin American-statesman first reported the arrest.
Schwertner was involved in another scandal in 2018 when he was accused of sending lewd photos to a University of Texas graduate student. He denied the allegations, and a UT investigation ended inconclusively after a third person claimed to have sent the photos.
Investigators did say, however, that Schwertner did not fully cooperate with the probe, and he used an encryption app to shield his phone number.