Josephine County Commissioner facing DUII charges

Simon HareJosephine County, Ore. — Josephine County Commissioner Simon Hare is entering an outpatient treatment program for alcohol after being charged with DUII.

In a statement Hare writes that he was stopped in Eugene and charged with driving under the influence on Thursday.

The Register Guard reports he nearly hit a police car after leaving a strip club.

No one was hurt.

Hare says the incident doesn’t impact his ability to perform his duties as a commissioner or his commitment to the community. He declined  the NBC5 News request for an interview and asked for privacy.

In 2013 the Department of Justice said there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Hare with lying about someone stealing his car and then filing a false report, but witnesses told a different story. They described Hare as “drunk” at a local bar and grill.

The Medford detective investigating said Hare was not cooperative but his conclusion was that Hare falsely reported that his Jeep was stolen. Commissioner Hare maintains he was not drunk that night.

Last December Hare admitted to sending suggestive text messages to two young women from somebody else’s phone that he took in a bar, he says by mistake.

The family said they believed Hare was drunk at the time. While hare told NBC5 News he was drinking alcohol that night, he maintains he wasn’t drunk.

Commissioner Hare also told NBC5 News he thought it was someone else’s phone and that it was one big misunderstanding and that he apologized to the people involved.

© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.

Skip to content