Seymour’s Son Held on Theft, Drunk Counts

U.S. Sen. John Seymour’s 24-year-old son, whose battle with alcohol has led to several drunk-driving incidents, his father said, is being held in San Joaquin County Jail on charges of auto theft and drunk driving.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Bob Whitmire said that Shad Edward Seymour was arrested in Garden Grove on May 3 on a warrant issued after he failed to appear in Lodi Municipal Court. That court hearing involved an incident a year ago, when Seymour was found unconscious behind the wheel of a car in a traffic lane, Whitmire said.

Sen. Seymour (R-Calif) said Monday that his son’s troubles with alcohol began in high school, and that his son has been through several programs unsuccessfully. The family stands ready to help, but Shad Seymour must take the first step, the senator said.

“Obviously, it has torn us apart over the years. Your heart goes out. You want to reach out and help and hold and do what any other parent would want to do with a child who is hurting like he is. But you finally get to a point where you realize no matter how much you want to do that, it isn’t going to work, unless there is some reciprocation,” Seymour said.

Whitmire said that Shad Seymour was arrested last April when officers “received a call that there was a person passed out in a car in the middle of Highway 12 at Lower Sacramento Road, just outside Lodi. We found him in a vehicle and arrested him for that, and a check of the license plate found out that (the vehicle) was stolen.” Whitmire said the initial arrest was handled as a felony because Seymour had at least three prior drunk-driving arrests. His blood-alcohol level was 0.20, Whitmire said. Under California law, drunkenness is presumed at a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 or above.

Shad Seymour also was driving with a suspended license and without insurance, Whitmire said.

Sen. Seymour said he telephoned his son in jail on Sunday, and the son acknowledged that he needs to confront his problem.

“He said, ‘Dad, I know I’ve got to come to grips with it.’ He didn’t say unequivocally that he’s prepared to do that; he’s doing a lot of thinking, obviously. He doesn’t like the idea, as none of us would, of being incarcerated. I said to him it seems to me you’re going to have lots of time to think about this,” Seymour said.

Seymour pointed out that his son, who is being held in lieu of $20,000 bail pending a May 21 hearing, will be represented by a public defender, because the family had made it clear after past incidents that he must take responsibility for himself.

According to court records, the younger Seymour was also arrested on suspicion of drunk driving on May 23, 1985, in Santa Ana.

The senator said that with each arrest, the family has tried to help Shad Seymour by urging him to enter alcohol-treatment programs. He has gone through a succession of different programs with little success, the senator added.

Seymour said his son’s troubles with alcohol began when the boy was enrolled in a high school in Sacramento and Seymour, a former Anaheim mayor, was a state senator representing the 35th State Senate District in Orange County.

After high school, Shad Seymour went into the Marine Corps.

But the younger Seymour’s drinking got him into trouble again four months later, his father said, when he was stationed at the Marine Corps base in Twentynine Palms and was arrested for drunk driving in Santa Ana.

In that incident, the younger Seymour rammed his vehicle into a fence at Dyer Road and Grand Avenue about 12:10 a.m. Police said his blood-alcohol level exceeded the state limit for drunkenness.

Once he left the Marines, his father said, the younger Seymour moved to Utah and then to Oregon before returning to Sacramento where he now lives.

At first, the family denied that Shad Seymour’s drinking was a “serious problem.” Their reaction, Seymour said, was typical of many families, until they acknowledged that the problem was not going to go away.

“We have dealt with it much like any other family. When it first began to occur, which is when he was a junior in high school, the first thing you do is say, ‘Oh, that’s just a youngster who had too much to drink at a party and it’s really not a serious problem.’ So the first act is denial that there’s a real problem,” Seymour explained.

“Then you go beyond that, as we did with Shad, and it happens again and again and you say, ‘Well, maybe there is a problem. Maybe he needs a change in environment or something like that.’ Then that doesn’t change things.”

Seymour said treatment programs and counseling were tried. But finally, Seymour said, the family realized that “until (Shad) really reaches down inside himself and truly wants to confront the problem he’s got . . . it isn’t going to work until something happens inside him.”

Times staff writers Mark Landsbaum and Matt Lait contributed to this story.