RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. — A former Department of Transportation official has been arrested on a charge of solicitation of prostitution.
John Norton Hardee, 72, was arrested on charges of prostitution.
Hardee was the South Carolina Department of Transportation commissioner from 1998 to 2007 and 2014 to 2018.
Details of this arrest have not been made public yet.
Just this week, Hardee was sentenced to 45 days of home confinement and 18 months of probation for telling someone to destroy emails before the FBI could read them in an obstruction case that's unrelated to the new arrest.
Hardee told investigators that he panicked when a business associate said the FBI wanted to see his emails.
Hardee pleaded guilty back in January after accepting alleged bribes from a state contractor.
Hardee was a DOT commissioner from 1998 to 2007 and again from 2014 through 2018. The expressway to Columbia's airport is named for him.
He was transported to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.