Former U.S. Congressman Tim Mahoney was arrested on a DUI charge early Saturday after police said they found him sleeping in his parked car in Palm Beach Gardens.
Mahoney, a Democrat who filled former Congressman Mark Foley's seat, was sleeping behind the wheel around 3 a.m., police said. The fifty-four year-old was charged with DUI "based on the investigation and after talking to the driver," Palm Beach Gardens Police Commander William Brandt said.
No other details were given. Mahoney, a multimillionaire venture capitalist, was released on his own recognizance Saturday morning, according to a jail spokeswoman.
It's the second scandal to rock Mahoney in recent years. The political newcomer who ran on a family values platform lost his re-election bid in 2008 after revealing he'd had several affairs and put one of his lovers on the federal payroll as a congressional staffer. She later became a campaign worker.
He then fired her — he says for performance issues — and paid her $121,903 to keep her quiet and avoid a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Mahoney has insisted he broke no laws. His wife later filed for divorce.
Mahoney also acknowledged a 2007 affair with a high-ranking Martin County official in his district around the time he successfully lobbied the Federal Emergency Management Agency to give the county a $3.4 million hurricane cleanup reimbursement.
Politics
Florida's 16th District, which spans parts of eight counties from Palm Beach County westward toward the Gulf, has been a magnet for sex scandal in recent years.
Republican Mark Foley resigned from Congress in 2006 amid revelations that he sent lurid Internet messages to male pages who had worked on Capitol Hill as teenagers.
A telephone message left for Mahoney was not immediately returned Saturday.
