Possibly drugged? Mayor responds to YouTube video of him stumbling | News

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WECT) - A YouTube video is circulating around the internet showing a local mayor having trouble staying on his feet.

Carolina Beach Mayor Ray Rothrock was seen stumbling into a band at a local event.

He says the video was taken after work, and doesn't affect his performance as an elected leader, but he also says he only had a drink or two, and that it tasted funny, alluding to the possibility that he may have been drugged.

However, he later retracted that idea, saying that he doesn't want it to reflect badly upon the restaurant where he was filmed.

Rothrock also said he wonders why someone would take that video of him and upload it to YouTube in the first place.

The mayor says that everyone is entitled to some fun, and that the night he was filmed was his night off.

Tuesday night, a WECT viewer named James Beasley reached out and claimed to be behind the YouTube video, but says he meant no harm.

"I am the one who posted the Video in question," Beasley says in an email.

"At the time it was posted I did not know who it was that fell into the band. It was at the annual BEACH KIDS REUNION over Labor day weekend. I just thought it was funny. Ive seen far worse over the past 40 yrs at the island.  It wasnt until I was told It was Mr Rothrock that I considered pulling it. The only reason i didnt was because so many had already seen it and to pull it would make it seem like he had done something wrong.and I was trying to hide the fact that he is human.. For the record I believe that Mr Rothrock has done an excellent job in his endeavors for the township of Carolina Beach and this one incident should have no reflection on his ability to continue to do so"

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