Posted on 09/14/2007 10:32:37 AM PDT by SmithL
NASHVILLE — State Rep. Rob Briley has resigned as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, according to a statement issued today by House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh.
Briley had earlier indicated he intended to remain in the leadership position, despite his arrest last weekend on charges of drunken driving, evading arrest, vandalism and lesser offenses.
Briley, D-Nashville, had come under some pressure to resign the committee chair. Gov. Phil Bredesen yesterday joined those saying he should give up the seat.
Briley was also removed as a member of a House study committee that will be reviewing the state’s DUI laws with an eye toward recommending changes. He is off a study committee reviewing the state's death penalty laws as well.
Naifeh said state Rep. Kent Coleman, D-Murfreesboro, will replace Briley as chairman of the Judiciary Committee on an interim basis. Coleman, who has been serving as vice chairman of the panel, will also taking Briley's seat on the DUI and death penalty study committees.
Briley had told a newspaper reporter yesterday that he did not intend to resign. Had he not done so, he could have been forced to resign if indicted on felony charges.
Evading arrest and vandalism are felonies, but Briley has yet to be indicted.
Briley, 40, was arrested Saturday after police said he took them on a 100 mph chase and failed a roadside sobriety test. Police said they found an empty bottle of whiskey in Briley’s car and later charged him with vandalism for damage done to the back of a police cruiser.
“Stepping back from the leadership positions I think is an appropriate thing to do, and I hope he would consider doing that while he sorts these things out,” Bredesen said.
Bredesen acknowledged that House rules say lawmakers are only required to step down from leadership posts if they are indicted on felony charges.
“It’s the governor’s personal opinion that Rep. Briley should focus on getting better and ought to consider shedding some of these responsibilities to focus on that,” Bredesen’s spokeswoman Lydia Lenker said.
Briley told The Tennessean newspaper that he is getting treatment at Cumberland Heights, an alcohol and drug treatment center, and that he has no recollection of any of the day’s events.
Briley said he had no idea why he was in the area when he rear-ended a pickup truck in Dowellton. Police say he fled that accident before being spotted by a Watertown officer.
Briley said he listed the lobbyist for the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association as his contact person after his arrest because he wanted her to represent him in the DUI case.
“In the state that I was in, I wanted to make one phone call to one person that could connect me to the resources I needed in Wilson County,” Briley said. “That was the person that came to mind knowing that she works with and for trial lawyers who do criminal defense work.”
The lobbyist, Mary Littleton, told the paper she saw no conflict of interest in representing Briley even though her professional responsibilities include lobbying Briley’s committee.
The amazing thing is that Tennessee has RATS as the majority in its State House. Throw the bums out!
My first reaction was, “Ah, the party of ethics, the ones who promised to put an end to ‘the culture of corruption’, seem to have stumbled again.”
But this occurred to me —
If you are a Democrat, and you still have two living conscience cells in your brain to rub together, and you must not only observe but SUPPORT the utterly shameful, disgraceful, traitorious way your party is behaving...
...how could you NOT spend all your waking hours drinking your brains out???
Focus on "getting better"? How about, he should stop committing felonies?
Of course his lobbyist/attorney sees no conflict of interest.
She’s part of the 99% that makes all attorneys look bad.
Hearing of an enemy’s troubles always makes me smile :-)!
This punk had to bailed out by his mommy. Tenn. conservatives stand strong. Get rid of this bum.
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