SEYMOUR, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana lawmaker convicted of drunk driving admitted publicly on Wednesday that he used “horrendous” judgment.
In a Facebook post, Republican State Rep. Jim Lucas de Seymour said he accepted responsibility and was receiving professional help.
Police arrested Lucas on May 31 after he crashed his pickup truck through an interstate guardrail a few miles north of Seymour and fled. Officers found the badly damaged truck behind a Seymour carpet store about 3 miles from the crash site and discovered Lucas walking nearby.
Lucas smelled of alcohol, failed a field sobriety test and had a blood alcohol level of 0.097% on a portable breathalyzer more than an hour after the crash, according to a trooper’s affidavit. ‘State. The state legal limit for driving is 0.08%.
In a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty on June 12 to misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated and fleeing the scene of an accident. He will not face jail time as long as he completes at least 180 days of probation. His parliamentary colleagues did not sanction him.
“I have recently made mistakes and exercised horrible judgment,” Lucas wrote on Wednesday, adding later in the post, “I learned and will continue to learn every day for the rest of my life from those mistakes. …I am and will be a much better person because of it.