California Highway Patrol Releases Footage From Paul Pelosi's Arrest for DUI Causing Injury
Paul Pelosi, the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was convicted of causing injury while driving under the influence of alcohol after he pled guilty to the charge on Tuesday, August 23, prosecutors said.
The charge was related to a traffic collision on May 28. The 82-year-old had also been charged with having a 0.08 per cent blood alcohol level or higher causing injury, but the presiding judge, Joseph Solga, dismissed the second charge based on Pelosi’s plea.
Among the punitive measures in the sentence handed down by Solga were five days in jail, court fines, victim restitution and a three-year driving probation.
Following Pelosi’s conviction, California Highway Patrol released footage from the scene of the May 28 collision in which he can be seen interacting with responding officers. Credit: California Highway Patrol via Storyful
Video Transcript
- So my partner said he spoke to you-- he did speak to you. And he did smell a little bit of alcohol coming from your breath. So I just want to make sure I confirmed with him that he wasn't under the influence. I just want to make sure you're not under the influence as well. So what I'd like to do is just ask you a couple of voluntary questions. I would like to do a couple of voluntary tests. Are you OK with that? OK. Prior to the crash, was there anything wrong with your vehicle?
PAUL PELOSI: No.
- Are you sick or injured in any way? Are you diabetic or epileptic?
PAUL PELOSI: OK.
- Take insulin? Do you take insulin?
PAUL PELOSI: No.
- And do you have any physical impairment in your arms, legs, back, shoulder, or something like that?
PAUL PELOSI: No. And I--
[SPANISH SPEECH]
- And what was the last time that you put? That you flipped? So yeah. So I apologize in advance. Some of these questions are very strange. They're just questions that I read off of a little card that we're given. So some of them might seem a little odd. And how many hours would you estimate? And when was the last time you consumed any food? So it's about 11:00 right now. Around what time? OK. 8:00. And what did you have to eat?
- [INAUDIBLE]
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
- OK.
- [SPEAKING SPANISH]
- It does sound pretty delicious.
- [SPEAKING SPANISH]
- You were obviously the one driving the vehicle, right? Nobody else was controlling it somehow?
- No.
- And by no, you mean yes, you were the one driving, right?
- [INAUDIBLE]
- By no, you mean yes, you were the one driving?
- [INAUDIBLE]
- Just going to take a couple of pictures, and then you should be ready. I'll come back to this one right now.
- And then, where were you coming from originally before the crash?
- [INAUDIBLE]
- OK. And then where were you headed to?
- [INAUDIBLE]
- [SPEAKING SPANISH]
- And you know where your stopped at right now?
- Yeah, it's a woman driving, 29.
- And I know you mentioned to my partner you had a drink earlier. What was it that you had to drink?
- I had a glass of wine before dinner, and [INAUDIBLE] one with dinner.
- Was it-- what type of wine was it?
- A glass of champagne. [INAUDIBLE] white.
- You said the glass of champagne was before dinner?
- Yes.
- At the same place? OK. And you said you started at around 7:00, you finished by around 8:00?
- Yep.
- And where were you-- where did you consume those drinks?
- [AUDIO OUT]
- Friend's house?
[RADIO CHATTER]
- Do you feel any effects from the drinks right now?
- Did you happen to bump your head at all during the accident? Since the accident occurred, have you consumed anything as far as water, alcohol, or anything like that?
- No, I'd love some water, but no. A half a gallon of water that's cold [INAUDIBLE].
[RADIO CHATTER]
- Are you under the care of a doctor or a dentist for any specific reason other than just regular doctor visits?
- We use that thing all the time.
- You do?
- [INAUDIBLE] on the road.
- Oh.
- We're like part-time animal control too. [INAUDIBLE] how many animal calls we get all the time.
- And have you consumed any medicine or any drugs as of today?
[AUDIO OUT]
- How many medications do you generally take on an every day basis?
[AUDIO OUT]
Do any of them-- do any of those medications impair your ability to drive or anything like that?
- [INAUDIBLE]
- Do you happen to know that the names of the medication off the top of your head?
- I have it on my phone.
- If you don't remember, it's OK. Do you remember-- do you know what you take it for?
- I take them for--
[AUDIO OUT]
I don't [INAUDIBLE] phone, I can [INAUDIBLE].
- OK. Yeah, we'll--
[AUDIO OUT]
- As far as the medications, all the ones that you've consumed today, when was the last time that you consumed them-- at what time?
[AUDIO OUT]
- When I woke up this morning.
- 8 o'clock? Do you feel any effects right now from any of those medications? And then, have you had any surgeries recently?
[AUDIO OUT]
OK.
- [INAUDIBLE] crash. Do you have a vehicle description, two vehicle [INAUDIBLE] on the call [INAUDIBLE].
- [RADIO CHATTER]
- I'm going to run over and get my buddy.
- OK, no problem. And then
[AUDIO OUT]
- [INAUDIBLE] morning
[RADIO CHATTER]
- So the [AUDIO OUT]. Sure. All right, those are all questions I have for you. What I'll do now is I'll explain and demonstrate a couple of tests to you. I'm not trying to trick you or deceive you or confuse you in any way. I'll explain the test to you first. Then I'll demonstrate it to you, and then I'll have you perform it. If at any point you feel confused or you feel like you don't know what I'm asking you to do, let me know. I want to make sure that you actually understand what I'm asking you to do.
So the first test, I'm just going to check your eyes. I believe my partner checked your eyes very briefly. So if you want, we can go across the street over there. It's a little straighter than here because that way, your balance is a little better. If you're fine here, we can do it here as well. It's up to you. I just want to check your eyes.
- Check my eyes?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's going to be a couple of different tests. Some of them have a little bit of balancing to do. If you feel like physically, you're incapable of doing it, I don't want to have you hurt yourself. So we can do-- I have a bunch of different tests. But we'll do whichever ones are safest for you. And then [INAUDIBLE].
And then, the other thing, like I said, these are all voluntary tests. I'm not trying to make you do anything you don't want to do. If you feel like you're not impaired, we could just skip to doing a breath test. And then that'll tell me exactly where we're at. If you don't want to do any of those tests because they are a little bit-- they take a little bit of time. So it's up to you.
- This is a little low.
- Huh?
- [INAUDIBLE]
- What?
- [INAUDIBLE]
- You're good. You're OK. Yeah, you can grab onto my shoulder to go over here.
- [INAUDIBLE]
- Yeah, it's a little better. We can go on the sidewalk there if that works for you.
- That's fine.
- OK. So if you don't mind standing about right here for me, I'm just going to check your eyes briefly here. [AUDIO OUT] within the last 24 hours?
- Probably a little bit.
- OK.
- I mean, [AUDIO OUT] So, whatever, yeah.
- OK. All right, so what I'm going to have you do is you're just going to put your feet together just as mine are like that. Your arm is going to be down to your side. So if you don't mind taking like one step forward a little bit. Perfect. All right, so what I'm going to have you do is you see the tip of my finger here?
- Yes.
- You're going to follow the tip of my finger with your eyes. Your head is going to stay just as it is right now. I'm going to move it a couple of times in front of your face. So just keep track. You're trying to track the tip of my finger as much as you can. If you need to blink, blink as many times as you need. Does that make sense?
- Yeah.
- OK. All right, can you see the tip of my finger here?
- Yeah.
- All right, I'm going to make a circle in front of your face. I'm going to bring my finger close to your nose, but I'm not going to touch you. Just try to keep following the tip of my finger, OK? All right, one more time. Perfect. All right, you can relax.
- [INAUDIBLE]
- Sorry?
- I can't believe that car got whacked.
- Yeah, it's-- you guys are both actually really lucky that the crash wasn't more serious than it was in terms of injuries. There's crashes that I've been to a lot less damage than this where people have turned out-- got more seriously injured.
So the next test I'm going to have you do is fairly simple. I'm going to give you three different instructions. What you're going to do is you're going to start off with your feet together just as mine are. Your arms are going to be down to your sides. The first thing I'm going to say is, look up at the sky. The only thing you have to do is just look up at the sky just like that. And the second thing I'm going to say is close your eyes. So you're going to close your eyes like that.
And then the last thing I'm going to say is, begin. Once I say begin, the only thing you have to do is estimate 30 seconds inside of your [AUDIO OUT]. 30 seconds has passed, open your eyes, just say the word stop verbally. That way I know you're done with the test. All this test is designed to do is just test your internal clock, nothing else. So do you have any questions about the test itself before we begin it?
- No.
- OK, did you understand the test?
- [INAUDIBLE] feet together.
- Feet together, arms down to your sides.
- Yeah, I heard that one.
- You're going to look up at the sky, and then you're going to close your eyes. And then I'm going to say begin. And then, once you think the 30 seconds have passed, just open your eyes, look at me, and say the word stop verbally that way I know you're done with the test.
- They took off from here as soon as that one came out.
- Go ahead and look up at the sky for me. Close your eyes.
- No, we're on eval right now. Yeah.
- And begin.
- So [INAUDIBLE]. Yeah, we might be here a little bit. Yeah, nobody's claiming any injury. Yes.
[RADIO CHATTER]
- OK. OK.
[RADIO CHATTER]
- Wow, that was actually really spot on, 30 seconds.
- I'm just going to grab my notepad from behind you, sir.
- Yes, sir.
- Do you think you're physically able to balance on one foot or another?
- I don't think so.
- OK. Yeah, I don't want you to injure yourself if you can't. Would you be willing to do the breathalyzer test?
- [INAUDIBLE]
- Well, I've only essentially done two tests. But I have to do a couple. And rather than waste your time and do a bunch of different tests, if we just do that one, that'll be--
- What are the other tests?
- Most of them require balancing. And I wouldn't want you to fall over and hurt yourself.
- Well, I'm not going to fall over and hurt myself. What's the balance test?
- So the balance test-- what it's going to require-- so I'll explain it to you, and then you let me know if you're OK or you feel comfortable performing it. So if you want, you can watch me. I'll explain it and demonstrate it to you.
- White car's all set.
- So you're going to start off with your feet together just like that. Your arms are going to be down at your side. What you're going to do is you're going to lift one foot off the ground about 6 inches. This is an approximation. You're going to make sure your foot is parallel to the ground. You're going to look down at the raised foot, and you're going to count out loud. It's going to be in a manner of 1,001, 1,002, 1,003, and so on until I tell you to stop. The test is fairly short. It's less than a minute long. So it's going to look exactly as I'm going to show you right now.
So arms down to your sides. You're going to lift one foot about 6 inches off the ground. 1,001, 1,002, 1,003, 1,004, 1,005. Sometimes people will do this, and they'll bend their knee. So just make sure your legs are straight just like that. So some key things to remember for this test is make sure your arms are down to your sides. Make sure your foot is parallel to the ground, raised about 6 inches off the ground. You're going to look down at the raised foot and you're going to count out loud in the manner that I-- do you think you're comfortable enough doing that one?
- [INAUDIBLE]
- You can't grab on to the patrol car.
- I didn't understand you.
- So you could try both feet out if you want. Before we-- I'll let you start-- you can try the test with both feet. I'll give you like a pre-trial run, for lack of a better term. You could try it with both feet. See which one you feel more comfortable with, then once you're ready, just let me know. Are you sure you could complete the test?
- For sure.
- OK, because I really don't want you to fall over and hurt yourself. That's the last thing I'm--
- [INAUDIBLE]
- Right, but that defeats the whole purpose of the test grabbing on to a patrol car.
[RADIO CHATTER]
- You seem-- you seem pretty shaky on your legs, and I don't want you to fall over.
- Well, I'm not going to fall over.
- Right. Well, just based on what I'm seeing, I don't feel comfortable having you perform the test because I don't want to-- I don't want you to have the potential to fall over and hurt yourself. That's not what I'm trying to accomplish. So we'll do a different test. So the next test that I'm going to have you do is called the finger count test. It's very simple. So just don't do anything yet. Just watch me.
You can use left hand, right hand, whichever one you feel more comfortable with. What you're going to do is you're going to touch the tip of your thumb to the tip of every finger. So it's going to look like this. 1, 2-- so don't-- hold on. So you're going to touch, like I said, the tip of your thumb to the tip of every other finger. So it's going to look like this. 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2,1. That's one set, and I need you to do three sets. 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2,1. So sometimes people get mixed up between the tips of their fingers, which would be this, and the pads of their fingers. People will do that, so just make sure you're touching the tip of your fingers.
- All right.
- Do you understand-- do you understand the [INAUDIBLE]? Do you understand? OK, perfect. OK, so just make sure you're counting each time you touch your finger. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3 2, 1. 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1. 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1. And that's three sets, the way I explained it. Any questions before we start? So go ahead stand up straight without leaning on the patrol car here.
- 1, 2 3, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1. 1, 2, 3, 4. 4, 3, 2, 1. 1, 2, 3, 4, 4. Is that a little [INAUDIBLE]?
- Yeah, yeah, I understand.
- [INAUDIBLE] again. I know he's in the middle of something, but [INAUDIBLE].
- He's almost done. Give me like two minutes.
- OK.
- Last point here. I'm just going to read this to you briefly. So I am requesting that you take a preliminary alcohol screening test to further assist me in determining whether you're under the influence of alcohol. You may refuse to take this test, however, this is not an implied [INAUDIBLE]. And if arrested, you will be required to give a sample of your blood or breath for the purpose of determining the actual alcoholic and drug content of your blood.
So and in regular terms, what that means is that I'm requesting that you take a breathalyzer test. It's not-- it's a voluntary test. It's not-- it's not a required test. In the case that somebody is arrested for driving under the influence, they are required to submit to a separate test. So sometimes where people get mixed up is when I ask them about this test-- which is just generally the preliminary alcohol screening test, or otherwise known as the breathalyzer-- is if somebody does that test, and then I determine that they're still under the influence and I place them under arrest, then there's a separate chemical test that they're required to take.
So it's two separate breath tests. Like I said, this one is voluntary. I'm requesting that you do it. But like I said, you have the option.
- We did all those test.
- Right, right.
- And I passed all of those tests, so why are we doing another one?
- So none of the tests are pass or fail. And a lot of people actually think that they're pass or fail. That there's not-- none of the tests are pass or fail. There's just different clues that I'm trained to look for when I'm having somebody do all these tests. And you have the right to refuse that test, but if you do, then I still ultimately have to make a determination of whether I think you're impaired based on your performance on all the other tests. So don't think that the tests were pass or fail at all. They're just clues that I look for in every test. Are you-- are you willing to do the breathalyzer test?
- I don't think so. [INAUDIBLE] I just want to go home.
- Right, I understand you want to go home. I understand you want to go home. But you got to understand from my standpoint, right, you're involved in a crash. I smell alcohol coming from your breath. I can see you're very unsteady on your feet. So you see where it's concerning to me?
- [INAUDIBLE]
- Right, right. I understand what you told me. But on my end, you got-- you also got to look at-- from my end, I smell the alcohol on your breath. I see how unsteady you are on your feet. And I understand you're telling me that [AUDIO OUT] you also got to understand from my perspective, there's still a job that I have to do. Does that make sense?
- A little. Yeah.
- OK. So with that being said, are you are you comfortable doing the breathalyzer test or no?
- No.
- OK.
- Yeah, whatever, I'm an extremely high-profile person, and I don't want to--
- Right. I understand who you are. And I'm not-- I'm not here to try to do anything-- draw any negative attention to you. If you've been honest with me, there's really nothing that you should be worried about. In terms of the alcohol you consume, if you've been honest with me about your consumption being only two glasses of alcohol, there's no reason why that amount will put you at above the legal limit.
But the way I think about it, if somebody's involved in a crash-- imagine from a standpoint if God forbid, one of your family members involved in a crash, and the person who caused that crash has alcohol in your system, you would want that person or that officer to do everything he can to make sure that person wasn't under the influence, right? And that's what I try to do with every crash that I suspect that there might be some level of impairment. I want to confirm that that's not the case.
- [INAUDIBLE] long day.
- I totally-- [AUDIO OUT] OK. Say again. All right, give me a second. Let me just talk to that office over there, and we'll go from there. And then we'll figure everything out. Give me a second.
- Once we've finished-- yeah, so yours is all set, and then we'll finish his up. Thank you.
- So, I mean he's really unsteady on his feet, but I'm going to tell you everything that I've done. So he's--
- [INAUDIBLE]
- Yeah, he refused [INAUDIBLE]. But he's unsteady on his feet. But that could partially be because he claimed he had a [AUDIO OUT] I did see some HGN. Sorry, wrong one. So HGN, no LOC. Rhomberg was spot on 30 seconds. He did finger count, and he performed that fine. But in terms of one leg stand and walk and turn--
- He didn't do any of those?
- Well, I didn't have him-- I didn't even have him do them just because he's constantly grabbing on to the patrol car just to be able to keep his balance.
- Right.
- I did see some HGN. And just based on the Rhomberg. So what do you-- what do you think?
- You can only go with the totality of all you have.
- Right. I mean, he's at fault for the crash. Right, 'cause--
- [INAUDIBLE] yeah, that's pretty much what you have left.
- Yeah.
- After taking everything into account, you have to make the call.
