Carla Wyatt/ Facebook
Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt
Embattled Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt was allegedly sleeping in a vehicle on a Galveston County highway before she was arrested on a DWI charge Saturday, records show.
Wyatt’s vehicle was parked in the left lane of Highway 3 in Texas City just after 1:30 a.m. Saturday when an officer approached the driver’s side, opened the door and removed the keys from the ignition, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Houston Public Media. It also shows the officer awoke Wyatt, who “advised she was in heaven.”
Wyatt, 56, then allegedly told the officer she believed she was in Houston and on her way to a conference in Galveston. The Texas City Police Department officer smelled alcohol and directed her to step out of the vehicle, according to the probable cause affidavit, which states that Wyatt told the officer she had two glasses of wine hours earlier. The officer allegedly observed Wyatt swaying and struggling to stand before she declined to engage in a field sobriety test.
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A statutory warning was read to Wyatt before her arrest informing that refusal to provide a breath test would result in the suspension of her driver’s license, according to the affidavit.
Christopher Downey, a defense attorney representing Wyatt, said Wyatt denies that she committed any criminal offenses.
“We are looking forward to obtaining the discovery in the case and investigating the basis for these charges,” Downey said. “Just like any citizen, Dr. Wyatt should be accorded the presumption of innocence while these accusations remain unproven.”
Wyatt has been released from the Galveston County Jail on bond. Downey, who recently represented Wyatt in an unrelated burglary case that was dismissed by a grand jury earlier this year, said he did not immediately know the next court hearing date in the DWI case.
Wyatt, a Democrat elected in 2022, was arrested in Harris County last December and accused of breaking into another person’s vehicle in a restaurant parking lot with intent to commit theft. Prosecutors said several people watched as Wyatt searched through items inside a vehicle that wasn’t hers.
A Harris County grand jury declined to indict her on the burglary charge in April. Downey at the time said she received a medical consultation following her arrest for cerebrovascular disease and a mini-stroke. Wyatt had begun treatment for anemia and made certain changes to her daily nutritional intake and work habits, he said.
Wyatt was previously accused of driving while intoxicated in 2023, when she allegedly had a blood-alcohol concentration of at least .15%, nearly twice the legal limit. That charge was dismissed in August last year after Wyatt completed a pretrial diversion program. The case record includes two bond violation reports — one in January 2024 for failing to obtain an ignition interlock device for her vehicle that tests for blood alcohol content, and again in March that year for a blood alcohol concentration that was above the legal limit.
Before her most recent arrest, Wyatt already was in the throes of a shakeup in her office after county commissioners in February stripped the office of a key function and voted unanimously to pursue dissolving the county treasurer’s office.
RELATED: Harris County commissioners will prioritize abolishing the county treasurer’s office next year
Because the position of county treasurer is elected, a move to abolish the office entirely would require majority approval from Texas and county voters in an election cycle. Other counties that have sought to eliminate county treasurer offices include Galveston County. In Harris County, the treasurer is responsible for handing the county’s finances and transactions at the direction of the commissioners court.
Wyatt did not have any challengers in the Democratic primary election in March and is set to be on the general election ballot in November, facing Republican Marc Cowart.