Authorities in North Carolina charged a judge up for reelection this year with driving while intoxicated on Friday, media outlets report.
Now his campaign is disputing the charge.
Tim Smith, a judge in eastern North Carolina’s fourth judicial district, was drug tested after the fact by an independent expert who found he wasn’t impaired, the Committee to Elect Tim Smith said Tuesday in a Facebook post on his election page.
“This independent analysis corroborates statements from multiple witnesses who spent their morning in court with Judge Smith who state he was not impaired,” the post states.
A Jones County Sheriff’s deputy pulled Smith over around 2 p.m. on Friday, the Jacksonville Daily News reported.
Trooper Leland Galetka with the N.C. Highway Patrol told the newspaper that Smith was “driving erratically” before the deputy made him pull over and called the Highway Patrol for help.
Galetka then conducted a “standard impaired driver investigation” that included a roadside sobriety test, the Daily News reported.
Smith was charged with a DWI, taken to the Jones County Magistrate’s Office and “released on a written promise to appear in court,” according to WCTI.
He also submitted to a blood test at the courthouse, his election committee said in the statement.
The Highway Patrol told WITN they didn’t think his impairment was “alcohol-related” and are waiting for the test results. But Smith’s election committee said a second voluntary test with an independent drug expert will prove he wasn’t impaired.
According to the statement, Smith had just left work at the courthouse in Jones County and was headed home when he was pulled over.
“The court’s proceedings began timely and the state prosecuted the matters on the calendar in an ordinary fashion,” his election committee said. “At no time were the court’s proceedings interrupted by any prosecutor, law enforcement officer or other court official due to concerns about Judge Smith.”
Smith was appointed to serve Duplin, Jones, Onslow and Sampson counties in April 2019, according to a news release from Gov. Roy Cooper’s office.
He was “born and raised” in Duplin County and started his own practice there after graduating from law school in 1986, his election page states. Smith served as a Duplin County Commissioner before being tapped to become a district court judge.
Records show his next court date is April 3.
“Judge Smith welcomes the opportunity to defend himself at the trial of this case and is confident the evidence will show he was not driving while impaired,” his election committee said.
