South Carolina state Rep. Ted Vick has been charged with his second DUI this year, but he claims the incident was a misunderstanding—he simply had “a rock in his shoe.” Early Wednesday morning, a Bureau of Protective Services officer spotted Vick “staggering side to side” and “struggling to maintain his balance” around the House of Representatives parking garage before hopping in his car and trying to drive away. After witnessing the lawmaker “having trouble driving a straight line” and running over a flex cone, the officer arrested him for suspected DUI. His defense attorney, fellow state Rep. Todd Rutherford, insists that Vick was sober. “The way he walks does not dictate the way you drive. And he only saw him driving 20 feet,” says Rutherford. “Ted was not intoxicated. He was not drunk. He was not impaired. I have never in all my years seen anybody stopped by an officer on foot in a parking garage.” Rutherford insists that “he had a rock in his shoe” and claims that Vick ran over the cone because his truck was too large. The officer also reported “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting” from Vick, who maintains he only had two glasses of wine and refused breath tests. Vick was released Wednesday on bond; his previous DUI charge, earlier this year, was dropped.
