Carla Wyatt
Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt told a Texas City police officer she was “in heaven” before she was arrested and accused of driving while intoxicated early Saturday morning, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the Chronicle.
Wyatt was taken into custody in Galveston County in her third arrest and second DWI charge since taking office as Harris County treasurer in 2023. The prior DWI charge in December 2023 was dismissed after she completed a pretrial diversion program.
Christopher Downey, Wyatt’s defense attorney, said Wyatt denies committing any crime. He said he plans to request public records including the police offense report, forensic testing and body-worn camera and dash camera footage.
“We’ll get into it and find out whether or not this case holds water,” Downey said.
The affidavit for the most recent arrest, signed on Saturday, outlines how Wyatt’s encounter with police played out along Texas 3 in Texas City.
Wyatt first said she was “in heaven,” but after the officer repeated the same question, she said she was in Houston and heading to Galveston for a conference, the document states. When the officer repeatedly asked if she consumed alcohol, Wyatt first said she had dinner and then admitted to drinking a glass of wine at her Houston home at around 10 p.m., the affidavit alleges.
She admitted to drinking two glasses of wine after another question about the amount she drank, the affidavit alleges.
The officer said he could smell alcohol when Wyatt agreed to exit the vehicle, and she sat on the vehicle’s rear bumper to keep her balance and failed a field sobriety test, the affidavit alleges.
The Texas City police officer decided Wyatt was unsafe to drive a motor vehicle and arrested her. She is charged with a class B misdemeanor.
See here for the background. Full marks to defense attorney Chris Downey for his advocacy. I’m not sure what to make of this, though I will note that the original story just said she was arrested for “driving while intoxicated”, which I don’t think I would have interpreted as a class B misdemeanor. One could read this story and reasonably conclude she was more tired than anything else, in which case pulling to the side of the road and going to sleep was the responsible thing to do. One could also reasonably conclude she shouldn’t have been driving in the first place, and so being arrested for being unsafe to drive was appropriate. There’s a court hearing scheduled for June 26, so we’ll see what we learn then.
Was she drunk when she mistakenly entered the wrong car? The private grand jury hearing on that charge means we may never know. At least she gets a license suspension for refusing the breath test this time.
Anybody in their 50s or older who has multiple DWI arrests has a real problem.
IMO, with this from her original arrest:
>>Wyatt was previously booked on a driving while intoxicated charge in 2023 and recorded a blood-alcohol concentration of .365% – more than four times the legal limit of .08, according to KPRC.<>But she was accused of not installing an ignition interlock device on her car, according to her case report.<<
https://dnyuz.com/2026/05/13/texas-treasurer-told-officer-she-thought-she-was-in-heaven-before-being-arrested-for-dwi-cops/
THAT and what I said above is what you should make of it. (And, if health problems are a contributing factor, that shouldn't be seen as an excuse, but rather, even more reasons to stop drinking.)