John Norton Hardee, 72, has been booked into Richland County’s Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center on a charge of solicitation of prostitution.

Hardee is a former state transportation commissioner. He also pleaded guilty earlier this week to charges of federal evidence tampering.

A report from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said deputies picked him up Thursday on a solicitation of prostitution charge.

Hardee was a South Carolina Department of Transportation commissioner from 1998 to 2007 and from 2014 to 2018. The John N. Hardee Expressway at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport is named after him.

The Airport Commission will meet Monday to discuss renaming the expressway in light of recent events.

Hardee was sentenced Wednesday on a federal felony charge of deleting emails connected to an FBI investigation.

Judge Terry Wooten handed down a sentence of house arrest, community service, and a $1,000 fine.