Tennessee state Sen. Ken Yager wet himself during a traffic arrest in Georgia on Tuesday, according to an incident report, with video appearing to show the politician wearing stained pants as he staggers in a sobriety test.
Yager, who chairs the Senate Republican Caucus in his state, was charged with hit-and-run, failure to stop at a stop sign and DUI (less safe driver), a spokesperson for the Glynn County Sheriff’s Office told HuffPost on Thursday.
“An unfortunate incident happened last night,” the politician said in a statement to various media outlets. “On the advice of my attorney, I cannot discuss the particulars at this time. I am and will continue to cooperate fully with authorities to bring this incident to an appropriate conclusion.”
Troopers were investigating a hit-and-run involving a Ford Edge and reportedly tracked it to a grocery store parking lot on Jekyll Island. An individual there, identified as Yager, was already being treated for injuries by emergency personnel when they arrived, WKRN reported.
Officers noticed alcohol on his breath and put Yager, who admitted to drinking wine earlier in the day, through sobriety tests, according to the arresting trooper’s incident report from the Georgia Department of Public Safety, which was cited by The Tennessean.
The incident report also said that at some point during the stop, Yager urinated on himself and registered 0.14% on a Breathalyzer-type device. Tennessee’s NewsChannel 5 said it obtained video from the sobriety tests, with the footage appearing to show Yager with a large stain on his pants as he struggles to walk a straight line.
The conservative legislator has voted against gender-affirming care for minors and voted to allow marriage clerks to refuse to wed couples if they object to the union based on their beliefs. He’s also supported measures to ban transgender girls from playing on a private school’s female teams and to allow teachers and others to refuse to call students by their preferred pronouns.
HuffPost has reached out to Yager’s office for comment.
