Lucas
State Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, was arrested early May 31. One of Indiana’s most controversial lawmakers now has some serious criminal allegations to answer for.
Lucas, 58, crashed his vehicle on Interstate 65, just north of Seymour, around midnight May 31, according to Indiana State Police. He allegedly drove off the road from State Road 11, down an embankment, through a guardrail, onto northbound Interstate 65, across all three lanes, and careened off the guardrail in the median. He then drove his battered truck the wrong way up the SR 11 exit ramp, and three miles back to Seymour on three tire rims.
Luckily, no one was hurt. Property damage is estimated at $25,000 to $50,000.
Following a trail of broken truck parts and leaking fluids, police soon found Lucas and arrested him. A trooper smelled alcohol and believed Lucas was intoxicated, according to reports. Lucas was taken to a hospital for a blood draw. Toxicology reports are pending.
Lucas, whose House District 69 includes portions of Bartholomew, Jackson, Scott and Washington counties, was booked into the Jackson County Jail on preliminary charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a crash with property damage. Formal charges have not yet been filed.
These would be serious charges for anyone, but Lucas should expect to be held to a higher standard. He is one of just 100 members of the Indiana House of Representatives elected to represent us and make state laws.
Call us old-fashioned, but we believe that someone convicted of violating the laws of the state should lose the privilege of making them. If Lucas is found guilty of these charges, he must resign. We also believe that as long as Lucas remains a member of the Indiana House of Representatives under this suspicion, the institution’s reputation, such as it is, will be further sullied.
Lucas has made no public comment since his arrest. Of course, he is innocent until proven guilty, but jail booking photos and police crash reports have a way of distilling a moment in time. And official accounts suggest Lucas at the very least violated the law by fleeing rather than taking responsibility for his actions.
But accepting responsibility has never been Lucas’ strong suit. He is casually reckless on social media, causing damage of another kind. He peddles conspiracy and worse. He has been condemned for posts viewed as racist or anti-Semitic. He revels in it. Or did.
As of June 9, Lucas’ Twitter account had been inactive since his arrest. But in the 48 hours before then, he had tweeted or retweeted two dozen items — the usual tired hodgepodge of election denialism, COVID conspiracy theories and the like. In one, he called fellow Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy “a traitor.”
Lucas styles himself as an envelope-pushing rapscallion; a no-holds-barred ideologue who also champions marijuana legalization. None of those things disqualify him as a lawmaker.
But endangering the public by allegedly driving while intoxicated, crashing his vehicle, leaving a trail of destruction and fleeing the scene? Those things ought to.
