Idaho Senate Republican Caucus Chairman ‘looking for promised land’ before arrest

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http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/jun/20/mcgee-looking-promised-land-arrest/

StoryComments 18June 20, 2011 in Idaho

Idaho Senate Republican Caucus Chairman John McGee of Caldwell was arraigned in Idaho’s 4th District Court on charges of misdemeanor drunken driving and taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent, causing more than $1,000 damage, a felony.

McGee, 38, was arrested early Sunday after police say he took a Ford Excursion and cargo trailer from the southwest Boise home of a “complete stranger” and got it stuck in a yard just down the street. A breath test showed the four-term lawmaker’s blood-alcohol content was nearly twice the legal limit, police said.

Joe Carleton, owner of the home in whose yard McGee got the SUV stuck, told KIVI-TV, “He was in the back seat and I asked him what he was doing. He said, ‘I’m looking for the Promised Land.’ I said ‘You’re in the wrong land – this is not the Promised Land.’ Then he saw my wife in the window with a robe on and he says, ‘There’s an angel.’ I called 911 right away.”

Residents told the two TV stations that McGee was barefoot, had cuts on his legs and seemed dazed.