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Coffee County Commissioner Tim Brown was arrested Tuesday following a traffic stop on Highway 55 by the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

Brown told The Manchester Times that he was making a turn near the Coffee County Raider Academy when he was pulled over for failure to yield.

Brown disputed the traffic infraction and was arrested when he refused to sign the ticket.

Brown said that he was unaware that the refusal would result in his arrest.

“If I did something wrong I’ll be glad to pay the ticket, but I didn’t,” Brown said.

Brown would reiterate his statement in a social media post in response to the arrest.

“All it was over was not signing a traffic ticket for something I didn’t do,” Brown said. “I didn’t think I had to sign. So my message to everyone, if you get pulled over by State Trooper sign the ticket guilty or not.”

Brown bonded out and will appear in court in Coffee County March 25.

In the warrant against the county commissioner, the arresting officer said he observed Brown in front of Raider Academy in Manchester and that he entered the turning cut near the school and drove around two other vehicles waiting to safely enter Highway 55.

“Brown drive around and on the inside (left) of the vehicles occupying the intersection and entered Highway 55 improperly,” the officer wrote in the warrant citing failure to yield.

The commissioner’s arrest came under TCA 7-63-104 which says “In the event the offender refuses to sign the agreement to appear in court and to waive the issuance and service upon the offender of a warrant, then it shall be the duty of the officer, in whose presence the offense is committed, forthwith to place the offender under arrest and take the offender before the proper authority, procure a warrant, serve the warrant upon the offender and book the offender as in other cases of violations. The authority issuing the warrant shall take bail from the accused for appearance in court for trial, or in lieu of bail, commit the offender to jail.”