Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell 4th Arrested for DUI

State Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell 4th, Democrat and son of the trailblazing Harlem politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr., was arrested for drunk driving on the upper West Side at 2:30 a.m. this morning. According to the Daily News, an unidentified woman passed out in the back of the car was so intoxicated she had to be taken to a local hospital. Powell failed a breath test at the scene by a small margin and, while at the station house, refused to take a chemical sobriety test. He faces charges punishable by up to a year in jail.

It’s the latest bit of trouble for the 45-year-old bad boy assemblyman, who in May 2004 was accused of liquoring up a 19-year-old intern in a Colonie motel room and then sexually assaulting her. (She later recanted; funny how that happens.) In July 2004, another woman came forward with accusations that Mr. Powell sexually assaulted her in at the Trump International Hotel and Tower. No arrests were made there and, with any luck, the lady found in Powell’s back seat won’t remember a thing about last night!

In other political drunk driving news, State Senator John Sabini of Queens pleaded guilty last month to “Driving While Ability Impaired.” He was arrested behind the wheel in Albany last September; after paying a fine of $300, attending educational classes and apologizing, he is free to drive again.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on March 6, 2008 3:35 PM

Comments [rss]

dui lawyer

failing the breathalyzer by a small margin? any good dui lawyer can get him off those charges without a problem. did you know those things are not even 50% accurate? they are completely useless and any lawyer with a head on his shoulders will prove it. leave the man alone.

cool

is his brother Adam Clayton Powell? how does one become the IV after a II?

petebfd

sounds like a scumbag

Karen

I've met this jerk a few times in Albany. He's rude, selfish, sits there and takes cel phone calls while he's supposed to be meeting with you, deflects all talk of what his constituents are concerned with, to boast that Vanessa Williams played his stepmother in a movie he produced for HBO about his waste product father.

Like father, like son.

JacqueMehoff

that's right, if we truly went by the one drop rule

all of bensonhurst would be bed-stuy.

hey, don't blame me, I didn't make up the one drop rule, it's been around forever, ask the founding Fathers.

Thanks to CSPAN for African American month programming.

MFer

We need to stop being racist and judge people's blackness by the color of their skin. One drop of black blood = full fledge blackhoodom. Everyone knows this. In Sicily, they say ...

nik13

He certainly wasn't arrested for "driving while black", regardless of what Rev.Al will say.

nik13

He certainly wasn't arrested for "driving while black", regardless of what Rev.Al will say.

HughGass

he was arrested for drunk driving ... that's what he was arrested for. stop with the semantics.

and he doesn't look black.

jaycjay

To many people get their definitions of legal terms like "arrested" from watching TV cop shows. "Arrested" does not mean "charged." He was arrested; he has not been charged.

Essentially an arrest is a detainment for a substantial time (maximum time is set by law and can vary by jurisdiction); the subject is not free to leave and is held in custody while his possible involvement in a crime is investigated.

JenChungsBaby

If you were in Colonie you'd want to get drunk too.

I suppose the piece could say arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. But that would be redundant. Besides, he definitely is guilty of at least one crime: refusing to take a chemical sobriety test. So let's not treat him like some kind of persecuted saint. Especially when it's pretty obvious that he's a scumbag.

Goomba

Gotti was more of a man than this drunk or that traditore Giuliani!

r_friend

Panduh, I think you may be confusing "arrested" with "convicted"... He may not have been convicted of the charges yet, but he was indeed arrested.

Nick S

tell us more about the great things john gotti did, goomba.

Goomba

We thought Adam Clayton Powell was black. This guy is less black looking than Obama.

Jen Chung

All the news sources say he was arrested.

And you'd think after the Colonie incident, he'd drink in his home, alone.

PanduhB

Harlem politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr., was arrested for drunk driving on the upper West Side at 2:30 a.m. this morning

Charges are still pending. You can't say "he was arrested for" as it hasn't been proved yet. It needs to say "He was arrested on charges of drunken driving." The Daily News article cites "police sources", so if you moved the "According to the Daily News" to the beginning of the paragraph, that would be better. As it is, there's no attribution.

Just a suggestion to keep the up journalistic integrity of the site.