Congressional Candidate Vows To Fight DWI Allegation
Democratic congressional candidate Herb Rule, taken into custody late Thursday in Fayetteville after police say he was driving while drunk, said the arrest was without cause and vowed to fight it. .
“I was not drunk,” Rule said in a prepared statement. “I was in complete control of my faculties. I will fight the charges vigorously and will win.”
The 74-year-old Little Rock resident faces charges of driving while intoxicated, improper lane use, failure to use a signal device and violation of the implied consent law, according to a preliminary arrest report.
Police said Rule, driving a white Lexus ES300 at about 10 p.m., drifted across lanes on North College Avenue without signaling and also turned onto Joyce Boulevard without signaling. In addition, Rule’s car traveled below the posted speed limit, the report states.
Rule was stopped at 4007 N. Shiloh Drive and was unwilling to cooperate with an officer’s instructions, the report states.
The officer said he smelled “the odor of intoxicating beverages” on Rule and in the vehicle. Rule was given a standardized field sobriety test, which he completed “in a manner consistent with that of an intoxicated person,” the report states.
Rule was arrested and taken to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office but refused to sign paperwork or submit to a blood-alcohol concentration test, according to the report.
In the statement, Rule said he had been returning to his hotel after meeting with friends and supporters when police stopped him for failing to signal a lane change.
Rule said he had dinner two hours before being stopped.
“The arrest was without cause, and I refused the breathalyzer and blood test as permitted by law,” Rule said.
Rule faces freshman U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., in central Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District in the Nov. 6 general election. Rule, a former Marine and attorney, was unchallenged in the May 22 Democratic primary election.
Rule was released from the Washington County Detention Center on Friday at about 4 a.m. He faces an Aug. 27 District Court date.
