The mayor of a small Virginia community has been arrested on a public intoxication charge — reportedly after appearing at the scene of a local train derailment while visibly drunk.
Paul Morrison, 57, mayor of Rich Creek, Virginia, was taken into custody by Giles County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Tuesday, according to WSLS, which cited jail records. The charge: public intoxication.
It is not the start to a mayoral tenure that anyone in a town of roughly 750 people would have scripted.
Earlier Tuesday afternoon, a Norfolk Southern Railway train derailed near Rich Creek — a community situated along the Virginia-West Virginia border. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) confirmed the incident, noting that portions of the derailment occurred on the West Virginia side of the state line.
The train spilled soybean oil at the derailment site. Officials confirmed the substance is classified as non-hazardous, and cleanup crews were deployed to conduct recovery operations. No injuries were reported in connection with the derailment itself.
According to sources cited by WSLS, Morrison reportedly arrived at the scene while intoxicated — and was subsequently arrested by the deputies already on the ground.
The precise sequence of events that led to Morrison’s presence at the derailment site, and the specific circumstances of his arrest, were not immediately made clear.
He was booked into the New River Valley Regional Jail and later released on his own recognizance, according to jail records.
A Mayor Who Won Through a Write-In Campaign
The arrest is particularly striking given how recently Morrison came to hold the office — and under what unusual circumstances.
He became mayor of Rich Creek in November, winning through a write-in campaign in a community that had just experienced significant institutional turmoil. Of the 106 votes cast in the election, 77 residents manually wrote Morrison’s name onto their ballots — a result that reflected both the unconventional nature of the race and the degree to which the town was searching for new leadership.
That search had been prompted by an abrupt collapse of the existing municipal government. Five of six Rich Creek Town Council members resigned, as did the mayor who had been appointed in early 2025. Former Mayor Anne Chambers later told local outlet Cardinal News that her own resignation came after internal conflicts and what she described as a “hostile work environment” had reached a breaking point.
Morrison’s write-in victory was, in that context, a community reaching for stability amid institutional disruption. Tuesday’s arrest is a complication that small towns of 750 people are not well-equipped to absorb quietly.
The derailment of a Norfolk Southern train near Rich Creek on Tuesday will be cleaned up — the soybean oil is non-hazardous, the crews are working. The arrest of the town’s mayor at that same scene, on a public intoxication charge, is a harder thing to contain. Paul Morrison won his office through the visible trust of 77 of his neighbors. What happens next — legally and politically — in a town that has already burned through an entire municipal leadership structure in less than a year will be worth watching. Fox News Digital reached out to Rich Creek, the Giles County Sheriff’s Office, and the New River Valley Regional Jail for additional comment and had not received responses at time of publication.