Republican House leader had been at Hal & Mal's for lunch event

Meridian police chief said they had reports of reckless driver before accident

House Speaker Protem Greg Snowden was arrested and charged with DUI refusal on Thursday after running into the back of another car at a red light near his home in Meridian.

But Snowden, R-Meridian, said he wasn't drunk and hit the car because he was texting and looking at his phone about the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings in Washington.

"We had received calls of an individual driving erratically and running people off the road," said Meridian Police Chief Benny Dubose. "... We got there after the fact of the wreck. When the officer arrived on the scene, they stated they smelled alcohol, and he failed a field sobriety test. He refused to take the test at the station."

Neither Snowden, the second-ranking lawmaker in the state House, nor the other driver reported injuries, Dubose said.

Snowden said he had attended a lunchtime function to support spaying and neutering of pets at Hal & Mal's restaurant in Jackson and left for home after the event ended.

Asked if he drank alcohol, he said, "No, not really, other than at lunch. I don't know what they had there. It was not anything excessive. I think I had a beer, that was it.

"I am not inebriated, and I did not do anything wrong, other than I hit the guy because I was looking down at my phone and I shouldn't have been."

Snowden, 64, said he has bad knees and was unable to walk properly for the field sobriety test. He said he refused to take a breath test because many attorneys have told him it is best to refuse them.

"I am not inebriated; I hope you can tell that," Snowden, a lawyer, told the Clarion Ledger via phone from the police station Thursday afternoon as he waited for someone to pick him up and take him home. "I've got bad knees, and I can't walk very good ... I did not agree to the DUI (test) because every lawyer I've ever heard told me not to do that, everybody I know and trust who's worth their salt as a lawyer."

Snowden said he had been "riveted" by the Kavanaugh testimony and reading about it and texting on his cellphone as he drove. He said he was about a quarter of a mile from his home when the wreck happened.

Passage of a House bill in 2015 after years of debate prohibits drivers from writing, sending or reading texts, emails or social media while driving. The civil citation carries a $100 fine. Snowden voted in favor of the law. Dubose on Thursday said Snowden had been charged only with DUI refusal.

Dubose said Snowden was being released to someone who signed a "responsibility sheet to be responsible for them for the next five hours," a standard department policy in DUI related arrests.

House Speaker Philip Gunn was traveling out of the country on Thursday and unavailable for comment, spokeswoman Meg Annison said.

"We are just learning about this, and we will look into it as the details come in," Annison said.

Snowden attended the Big Fix Clinic Lunch supporting Mississippi Spay and Neuter, an organization that serves 42 counties with access to low-cost spay and neuter services for pets and runs a clinic in Pearl.

An official with the clinic did not immediately return a call for comment.

In 2016, the Senate President Protem Terry Burton, the second-ranking member in that chamber was charged with a DUI after a wreck. He was found not guilty by a Scott County judge who ruled that cough syrup and breath spray Burton said he used while waiting for police to arrive must have caused a "false positive" on a DUI test.