Disgraced former Congressman Madison Cawthorn is facing new accusations that he tailgated a woman and rear-ended a Florida Highway Patrol officer.
The former North Carolina representative was seen on Interstate 75 South Monday night speaking to an injured officer, according to another driver, Alethea Shapiro — who shared video on social media of Cawthorn near a smashed-up black sports car.
Shapiro claimed the same vehicle had been tailgating her “relentlessly” just moments before.
At first, Shapiro tried to ignore the aggressive driver, “assuming the person would go around me if they were so impatient,” she told Newsweek.
“When they didn’t, I just decided to change lanes so I didn’t have to stress it.”
A few minutes later, Shapiro said traffic came to a standstill, and she realized the same black sports car had hit a Florida Highway Patrol cruiser.
“Suddenly, the car door opens and a man in a wheelchair rolls out,” Shapiro wrote on X.
“At the same moment, I have to navigate around his car, and I look ahead to see the officer exiting from his rear-ended vehicle holding his neck in the left lane as well.”
She said she then decided to pull over to make sure everyone was OK and “couldn’t believe my eyes.
“It occurred to me that former Congressman Cawthorn from [North Carolina] was the black car that stormed by me in an angry road rage tantrum,” Shapiro wrote.
She added that she then spoke to the officer, who was “quite stunned and kept reaching for his neck.”
Cawthorn also looked shaken up, Shapiro claimed to Newsweek.
“I could see him mouth ‘I am so sorry’ a few times,” she told the outlet.
In video she shared to social media, the former congressman could be seen speaking to officers and tow truck employees as he sat in his wheelchair on the median of the highway, next to a black sports car with its front completely banged up.
Car parts could be seen scattered around the highway, and a nearby police cruiser appeared to suffer damage to its front bumper.
An officer was also seen clutching his neck.
Cawthorn has been in a wheelchair since he was partially paralyzed in a car accident at the age of 18. The right-wing firebrand served just one, scandal-plagued term, which included his wild claims that lawmakers invited him to orgies and snorted cocaine in front of him.
He previously served North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District.
A Florida Highway Patrol spokesperson has since confirmed that a state trooper was rear-ended on I-75 in Collier County by a 2021 black Mercedes driven by a 28-year-old male Cape Coral resident at around 4:30 p.m. on Monday.
“The state trooper sustained minor injuries and was transported to an area hospital,” the spokesperson told The Post, adding that the crash remains under investigation and further information will be available once the crash report is finalized.
The Post has reached out to Cawthorn for comment.
