The chairman of the Lee County Board of Supervisors, cited for public intoxicated during a board meeting this week, says he didn’t realize at the time he was drinking from a can of diet soda he’d mixed with bourbon night before.
According to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, there were “signs and odors of intoxication” before chairman Tom Schultz left Tuesday’s board meeting to seek medical attention. In a statement to KTVO TV, Schultz said he felt “dizzy” and “disoriented,” had some tests done at the hospital, then left because he was feeling better. Schultz said he told officers who arrived at his home to get off his property and, while trying to reach the police chief who lives nearby, Schultz was stopped on the sidewalk and asked to take a breath test.
Schultz said he was shocked by the result and went back to the hospital for a second test. Schultz said it “dawned on” him then that he’d grabbed his nightcap from a basement refrigerator and had been drinking from a can of diet soda and bourbon during meetings that day.