Paul Pelosi was slurring his words and smelled strongly of booze after wrecking his Porsche in May, according to a police complaint filed ahead of the House Speaker’s husband’s arraignment Wednesday.
Pelosi, 82, is set to be arraigned Wednesday morning in Napa, California, in the alleged drunk-driving crash in which he smashed into a Jeep after dining at an area restaurant on May 28. According to a criminal complaint obtained by the New York Post, Pelosi tried to pass off a police courtesy card when state Highway Patrol officers arrived, then blew a blood-alcohol level of .082% after failing a field sobriety test.
Pelosi’s day in court comes after his wife, powerful Democrat lawmaker Nancy Pelosi, was on a controversial trip to Taiwan that had angered Beijing and caused headaches for the Biden administration. She met with Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday.
Pelosi was driving back to the power couple’s St. Helena vineyard home when the crash occurred on State Route 29. The driver of the 2014 Jeep, Jesus Lopez, 48, was injured in the crash and complained of having pain in his upper right arm, right shoulder and neck when seen by investigators the following day. In the complaint, Lopez says he began experiencing severe headaches following the crash.
Napa County (California) Department of Corrections
Both vehicles were totaled.
Highway Patrol officers said the VIP spouse’s eyes appeared “red and watery,” and he was obviously drunk.
“He was unsteady on his feet, his speech was slurred and he had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from his breath,” the complaint states.
Pelosi was booked at the Napa County Jail and released at 4:30 a.m. the next day. His wife was in Rhode Island at the time.
Napa County District Attorney Allison Haley charged Pelosi on June 23 with one count of DUI causing injury and another of driving with .08% blood alcohol level or higher causing injury.
In 1957, Pelosi, who was then a 16-year-old high school student, was involved in a car crash that killed his brother David. A neck brace the 19-year-old sibling wore was blamed for strangling him as he lay in the wreckage, and manslaughter charges were dismissed against Pelosi.