Richard Roberts: Oral Roberts' Son, ORU President Arrested For DUI

Richard Roberts, former president at Oral Roberts University and the son of the school’s televangelist namesake, was arrested on suspicion of DUI (driving while drunk) while speeding down a highway west of U.S. 169.

According to the arrest report, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper spotted Roberts driving his black Mercedes at 93 mph in a 65 mph zone shortly after midnight on Tuesday.

The trooper reports that Roberts smelled strongly of alcohol, and that he failed two coordination tests. His blood-alcohol level was tested at .11 percent, well above the limit of .08 percent required by law.

Richard Roberts was booked at a Tulsa, Okla. jail and released in the early hours of the morning. Officials told the L.A. Times that Roberts paid a $1,100 bail.

Scandal at Oral Roberts University

Richard Roberts was the president of Oral Roberts University from 1992 to 2007, when he and his family were accused of abusing university and ministry funds. A lawsuit was allowed filed by three former professors claiming they had been wrongfully terminated.

ORU was founded by his father, Oral Roberts, a famous Pentecostal evangelist, as an interdenominational Christian college based in Tulsa. After the scandal of the lawsuit and the accusations against his family, Richard Roberts resigned.

According to The Tulsa World, the tenured faculty approved a nonbinding vote of no confidence in Roberts shortly before he left. He remains the chairman and CEO of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association.

ORU Releases Statement

In the hours after Roberts’ arrest, Oral Roberts University has released a statement regarding the former president’s DUI arrest.

“Our prayers go out to Richard and Lindsay Roberts and their entire family as they face this life challenge,” it reads. “May God’s grace help them as they work towards healing.”

Richard Roberts was given the honorary title of president emeritus by the university in 2008. The college still follows an honor code that, along with prohibiting “homosexual activity” and “[being] a talebearer,” bans the consumption or distribution of alcohol.