North Carolina GOP Congressman Rep. Madison Cawthorn has been charged for the second time in the past five years with driving on a revoked license, a misdemeanor that carries up to 20 days in jail.
The 26-year-old Henderson County Republican was pulled over March 3 in Cleveland County — about an hour-and-a-half southeast of Asheville — by the highway patrol, according to court records and a highway patrol spokesperson.
Along with the misdemeanor, Cawthorn is facing two pending citations for speeding: 89 mph in a 65-mph zone in Buncombe County on Oct. 18 and 87 mph in a 70-mph zone in Polk County on Jan. 8.
Highway patrol spokesperson Sgt. Marcus Bethea said March 9 he could “confirm that the three citation numbers” are pending matters in Buncombe, Polk and Cleveland counties.”
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Bethea gave the dates of the alleged offenses, but said he would need time to collect more information on the incidents, including locations, by talking with the charging officers.
The (Asheville, North Carolina) Citizen Times has reached out to Cawthorn spokesperson Luke Ball.
The court date for the misdemeanor is May 6. The Polk County speeding citation is set to be heard April 18 with the Buncombe citation on May 3.
Cawthorn has been charged before with driving after having his license taken away. Before he was sworn in last year as a U.S. House member, a 2017 charge of driving while license revoked was dismissed in Buncombe, court records show.
Driving with a revoked license is considered a Class 3 misdemeanor in North Carolina and carries a maximum sentence of 20 days in jail, though the punishment is usually a fine or probation.
Cawthorn uses a wheelchair after being seriously injured in a 2014 car accident in Florida. A friend who was driving fell asleep while Cawthorn slept in the passenger seat, according to his 2019 federal court filing against the insurance company.
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