AUSTIN, Texas – A judge in central Texas who regularly presides over impaired driving cases was taken into custody over the weekend for DUI, according to reports.
Travis County deputies were called to the Homewood Suites in the 10925 block of Stonelake Boulevard in North Austin shortly after midnight on Saturday. Witnesses said a person later identified as Judge John Lipscombe attempted to back into a parking space that already had a car in it, Fox 7 Austin reported.
Lipscombe reportedly would have collided with the parked vehicle if a witness had not stopped him from doing so.
An argument ensued and the judge drove around the lot and parked in a handicapped space before going into the hotel.
Lipscombe told responding deputies that he “had a couple of drinks at his house but not even to get messy” when they contacted him in the hotel lobby, Fox 7 Austin reported, citing an arrest affidavit.
Although the judge told deputies that he had two double shots of rum and coke while at his home, he refused a field sobriety test due to an injured ankle, the affidavit said.
Nevertheless, deputies arrested Lipscombe who was elected judge in Travis County in 2011, the New York Post reported.
According to Fox 7, impaired driving is a class B misdemeanor in Texas. Lipscombe had more than two dozen DUI cases on his docket for Tuesday.
