Rep. Greg Snowden arrested for refusal to take DUI test after getting into wreck [View all]

House Speaker Protem Greg Snowden (R) was arrested and charged with DUI refusal on Thursday after running into the back of another car at a red light near his home in Meridian.

But Snowden, R-Meridian, said he wasn't drunk and hit the car because he was texting and looking at his phone about the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings in Washington.

"We had received calls of an individual driving erratically and running people off the road," said Meridian Police Chief Benny Dubose. "... We got there after the fact of the wreck. When the officer arrived on the scene, they stated they smelled alcohol, and he failed a field sobriety test. He refused to take the test at the station."

Neither Snowden, the second-ranking lawmaker in the state House, nor the other driver reported injuries, Dubose said.

Read more: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/09/27/greg-snowden-republican-meridian-arrested-dui-refusal-car-accident/1448348002/