A Tyson Foods executive, a fourth-generation member of the Tyson family business, was suspended Thursday after he was accused of driving under the influence, the company said in a statement.
John Randal Tyson, 34, the company’s chief financial officer and great-grandson of the Tyson founder, was arrested about 1:30 a.m. Thursday in Fayetteville, Arkansas, by University of Arkansas police and booked into the Washington County Jail. Jail records show.
It was the second time in less than two years that Mr. Tyson had been charged with an alcohol-related offense.
Mr. Tyson, whose father is Tyson’s chairman, was named the company’s chief financial officer in September 2022. He had only been in that position for a little over a month when he was arrested in November 2022 after a woman called police to report that when she returned to her Fayetteville home she found him sleeping in her bed, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported.
Tyson Foods said in a statement on Thursday that it was aware that Mr. Tyson had been “arrested for alleged drunk driving.”
“Tyson Foods has suspended Mr. Tyson from his duties effective immediately,” the company said. The company named Curt Calaway as his interim successor.
Tyson Foods declined to comment further beyond its statement on Thursday.
According to a preliminary police report, an officer with the University of Arkansas Police Department was pursuing a silver SUV that appeared to be traveling faster than 25 miles per hour around 12:45 a.m. Thursday. The officer observed that the vehicle made a wide turn before striking a curb on the driver’s side and traveling partially over the curb and grass before returning to the roadway.
The officer stopped the driver, identified as Mr. Tyson, and smelled a “strong odor of intoxicants coming from the vehicle,” the report said. Mr Tyson’s eyes appeared “bloodshot and watery”, it said.
Mr. Tyson told the officer he had not been drinking and agreed to undergo field sobriety tests, the report said. The officer said Mr. Tyson smelled of alcohol. When asked how much he drank, Mr. Tyson said he drank five to seven Miller Lite beers at Maxine’s Tap Room, a cocktail bar in Fayetteville.
Mr. Tyson was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence and taken to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. At around 2 a.m. he took a breathalyzer test, which revealed he had a blood alcohol level of 0.191, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.
Mr. Tyson was also charged with careless driving and improper U-turn. He was released from custody on Thursday morning.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Tyson apologized after his arrest in 2022 and later pleaded guilty to public drunkenness and trespassing.
The woman told police that the man she found sleeping in her bed may have entered through an unlocked door, The Democrat Gazette reported, citing a preliminary police report. An officer found Mr. Tyson, identified by his Arkansas driver’s license, sleeping in a back bedroom with his clothes on the floor, the newspaper reported.
According to jail records, Mr. Tyson is scheduled to appear in Fayetteville District Court on July 15 on the latest charges.
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2024-06-14 03:41:53
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