COLLEGE STATION, Texas James McCoy Taylor, a Texas singer, songwriter, and reality TV contestant, was arrested early Saturday morning in the Northgate district. He was charged with Driving While Intoxicated and Unlawful Carrying of a Weapon and was taken to the Brazos County Detention Center.
Online jail records show that 36-year-old Taylor from Katy was freed later that day after posting a $6,000 bond.
According to a probable cause statement filed by College Station Police, Taylor was first talked to around 2:45 a.m. in the Northgate Parking Garage by a Blinn College Police Officer who was there on an off-duty job.
The officer said that Taylor was peeing in the parking lot near his 2012 Ford F150 pickup truck. The police officer talked to Taylor and told him not to urinate near the truck. He also told James not to drive the Ford F150. Taylor told the officer that he wouldn’t drive and would find another way to leave, but the report says that just a few minutes later, he went back to his pickup truck and drove away.
When College Station police were called, Taylor was driving through the garage toward the exit gate. He told the officer he was just trying to move his truck to a different part of the parking garage so he could get better cell phone service, according to the arrest report.
Police say that they had to reach into the truck and turn off the ignition. They then told Taylor to get out of the truck.
After Taylor failed field sobriety tests, police stopped him for driving while drunk.
During the arrest, police said he was rude to the officer and called him things like “an idiot.” He also said he would try to get the officer fired and file charges.
The police found a gun in the pocket of the driver’s door in Taylor’s truck. Under Texas law, it is against the law to carry a weapon while doing something illegal, like driving while drunk.
Taylor is a singer and songwriter who may be best known for his appearance on Season 12 of The Bachelorette. Last year, he made headlines all over the country when he said he was going to sue several news outlets because they had wrongly said he was part of the January 6 capitol riot. A post on Taylor’s Instagram page says that he will be at the Texas Youth Summit in The Woodlands at the end of the month.
Officers said Taylor had glassy eyes, slurred speech, and smelled like alcohol while standing. He also swayed back and forth. He is said to have told police that he had been drinking at Northgate and had six drinks between 10 p.m. Friday and 1 a.m. Saturday at different bars.
In their arrest report, the police also wrote that Taylor had just met an 18-year-old “college freshman companion” at Northgate, and he planned to drive her back to her dorm room. In the report, the police also said that she was drunk and “was not in any way able to weigh the pros and cons of the situation she was in.”