Police: US Sen. Crapo arrested, charged with DUI

Asso­ci­ated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Idaho U.S. Sen. Michael Crapo was arrested early Sun­day morn­ing and charged with dri­ving under the influ­ence in a Wash­ing­ton, D.C., sub­urb, author­i­ties said.

Police in Alexan­dria, Va., said Sun­day that the Idaho Repub­li­can was pulled over after his vehi­cle ran a red light. Police spokesman Jody Don­ald­son said Crapo failed field sobri­ety tests and was arrested at about 12:45 a.m. He was trans­ported to the Alexan­dria jail and released on an unse­cured $1,000 bond at about 5 a.m..

“There was no refusal (to take sobri­ety tests), no acci­dent, no injuries,” Don­ald­son said. “Just a traf­fic stop that resulted in a DUI.”

Don­ald­son said he didn’t imme­di­ately know what Crapo’s blood alco­hol level was, where he was com­ing from or the type of vehi­cle he was driving.

The 61-year-old Crapo has a Jan. 4 court date.

“I am deeply sorry for the actions that resulted in this cir­cum­stance,” Crapo said in a state­ment Sun­day night. “I made a mis­take for which I apol­o­gize to my fam­ily, my Idaho con­stituents and any oth­ers who have put their trust in me. I accept total respon­si­bil­ity and will deal with what­ever penalty comes my way in this mat­ter. I will also under­take mea­sures to ensure that this cir­cum­stance is never repeated.”

A Crapo spokesman declined to com­ment on the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing his arrest.

Cur­rently in his third term, Crapo has been in the Sen­ate since 1998, and served for six years in the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives before that. He was eas­ily re-elected in 2010, and won’t have to run again until 2016.

In Con­gress, Crapo has built a rep­u­ta­tion as a staunch social and fis­cal con­ser­v­a­tive. It has been expected he would take over the top Repub­li­can spot next year on the Sen­ate Bank­ing Com­mit­tee. He also serves on the Senate’s bud­get and finance pan­els. Crapo was a mem­ber of the so-called “Gang of Six” sen­a­tors that worked in 2011 toward a deficit-reduction deal that was never adopted by Congress.

A Mor­mon who grew up in Idaho Falls, Idaho, Crapo was named a bishop in the church at age 31. He is an attor­ney who grad­u­ated from Brigham Young Uni­ver­sity and Har­vard Law School. He has five chil­dren with his wife, Susan, and three grandchildren.

The Mor­mon Church pro­hibits the use of alco­hol, as well as caf­feine and other mind-altering substances.

Posted by AP News on Dec 23 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.