A Hillsborough city official and Democratic National Committee member was charged with drunken driving in Chapel Hill Tuesday morning after an officer spotted his car veering into Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Hillsborough Town Board member Matt Hughes, 34, was charged Tuesday with driving while intoxicated and failure to maintain lane control, court records show.
This is the second time in the past two years that Hughes has been charged with driving under the influence. He has served on the council since 2019 and is also a former chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County.
In 2022, he ran an unsuccessful campaign for the N.C. House District 50 seat, and in September he was one of 131 delegates from North Carolina who voted at the Democratic National Convention to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
In December 2022, Hughes was charged with driving under the influence after a Chapel Hill police officer found him asleep in his car at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near Weaver Dairy Road.
Hughes pleaded guilty in that case and was ordered to perform 24 hours of community service and submit to substance and alcohol abuse assessments, court documents show.
On Tuesday, a police officer reported seeing Hughes driving his car from the street to the sidewalk near the Interstate 40 interchange in Chapel Hill around 3 a.m. Hughes then crossed into oncoming traffic, the officer reported.
After stopping the car, the officer noticed that Hughes “had red, glassy eyes, smelled of alcohol and appeared very tired.”
Hughes refused to submit to a breath test to detect his alcohol level, and his driver’s license was revoked for at least 30 days, court documents showed. He has been held at the Orange County Detention Center until now and released after a written promise to appear in court.
Hughes was at work Wednesday and not immediately available to answer questions about his arrest.
