When Ruston Samuel Kelly was named one of HuffPost’s Top 10 artists to Watch in 2018, or when he was named in Pandora’s 2018 Country Artists to Watch, we doubt that either meant to watch him get put in handcuffs, but that’s exactly what happened on Tuesday night in Nashville when Ruston Kelly was arrested and booked into the custody of the Davidson County Sheriff’s Department.
As it turns out, Kelly was pulled over on 11/19/2015 for driving on a suspended license, and was given a state citation to appear in court, and he never bothered to book himself and make an appearance, so eventually this became an outstanding warrant, as he failed to appear to be booked. He was arrested last night (01/16/2018) for the outstanding citation. Ruston Kelly was booked into the jail just after 10 PM on Tuesday night, and was ROR’d to his home address in East Nashville, with a court date set for 02/05/2018.
This isn’t the first run in with law enforcement for Ruston Kelly, or the self-booking for a citation process, as in late 2012 he was also issued a citation for no driver’s license, for which he appeared in court less than a month later.
Kelly’s first meeting with Nashville law enforcement was in September of 2009, when police gave him a clear chance to avoid arrest – but he refused and demanded to be arrested. Per court documents, Ruston Kelly was the passenger in a vehicle stopped for suspicion of DUI in the parking lot of 2320 West End Ave. at approx. 0400 hours on 09-14-09. Kelly stated he had been drinking with the car’s driver (Kelly’s brother) at the Green House Bar, and he had red, watery eyes, slurred speech, was unsteady on his feet, and had the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath. A taxi cab was called to the scene to take Kelly home, but suspect Kelly refused to get in the cab. Kelly stated he wanted to go to jail with his brother, and demanded to be arrested. Suspect was not in a position to be released, and had no one to tend to his welfare. Suspect was placed in custody at the scene.
