Rising Democratic Lawmaker Faces DUI-Related Charges

Bakari Sellers (D-Bamberg), one of the rising stars in the South Carolina Democratic Party, was arrested in October and charged with refusing to take a breathalyzer test.

Sellers told Patch that he was on I-77 headed to his home in Bamberg County following the USC-Georgia football game on Oct. 7 when he was pulled over by State Police. He was given a field sobriety test but refused the Breathalyzer, which comes with an automatic driver's license suspension of six months.

Sellers told Patch that the suspension was dismissed in January. Chester County court records show that he paid a $997 bond.

Sellers said he plans on going to a jury trial and deferred specifics of the case to his attorney. "I'm going to go through the legal process like anyone else would," said Sellers, who is an attorney.

WIS originally reported the story today and posted a video (see above) of portions of Sellers' field sobriety test on YouTube. Though the incident is reported to have taken place in Ocotber 2012, the time stamp on the video is from 2011.

NOTE: WIS has now posted the entire police video on its site.

"No one is more hurt by this than I am," Sellers told Patch. "It's a bump in the road that I'm going to do everything I can to get past."

"I'm not going to stop traveling to Columbia on behalf of my district and I'm not going to stop traveling the country telling people what we're doing here in South Carolina."

Sellers, 28, is a sought after public speaker and was named by Time Magazine as one of the top lawmakers in the country under the age of 40.

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