No legislative self-discipline in sight for Indiana lawmaker who admitted drunken driving

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana state lawmaker isn’t dealing with any rapid legislative self-discipline after pleading responsible to drunken driving fees for crashing his pickup truck by way of an interstate freeway guardrail and driving away.

Republican Rep. Jim Lucas of Seymour signed an settlement Monday with the prosecutor in southern Indiana’s Jackson County during which he pleaded responsible to misdemeanor fees of driving whereas intoxicated and leaving the scene of the accident.

Lucas mentioned in an announcement after Monday’s courtroom listening to that he took “full responsibility” for his actions surrounding the May 31 crash and would proceed in his legislative place.

Republican House Speaker Todd Huston mentioned Tuesday he had not but reviewed the plea settlement and needed to see that Lucas will get “the help that he needs and make sure that situation doesn’t happen again.”

When requested whether or not Lucas would face any disciplinary motion by the Legislature, Huston mentioned he was “obviously disappointed” by Lucas’ actions.

“I haven’t had really a chance to talk to him,” Huston mentioned. “I’ll take a look at it and see what we do moving forward.”

This yr’s legislative session led to April and lawmakers received’t return for an additional full-time session till January.

The plea settlement requires no extra jail time for Lucas, 58, so long as he completes not less than 180 days of supervised probation, together with alcohol or drug abuse remedy if mandated by the county probation division, and pays about $4,000 in restitution to the state freeway division to restore harm from the crash.

Lucas, who was first elected to the Legislature in 2012, is allowed to maintain his place as state regulation solely prohibits these with felony convictions from holding elected workplace. Lucas is a distinguished supporter of legalizing marijuana and loosening state gun legal guidelines. He has confronted controversy a number of occasions over social media posts decried as “sickening” by Democrats and “unacceptable” by Republicans.

Police mentioned officers stopped Lucas strolling close to the place they discovered his truck parked behind a Seymour carpet retailer almost 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the crash web site on the Interstate 65 and Indiana 11 interchange. The truck had main front-end harm and three flat tires, two of which had been worn right down to the steel wheel rims.

Lucas smelled of alcohol, failed a discipline sobriety examination and had a blood-alcohol stage of 0.097% on a conveyable breath take a look at system. The state’s authorized restrict to drive is 0.08%.