Inland state Sen. Sabrina Cervantes announced Monday, Sept. 8, that she filed a legal claim against the city of Sacramento alleging police misconduct and discrimination stemming from a driving under the influence citation she received after an auto accident in the state capitol.
Cervantes, D-Riverside, also accuses Sacramento police of retaliating against her because she sponsored a bill to curb police abuse of automated license plate reader technology.
“This is not only about what happened to me — it’s about accountability,” Cervantes said in a news release issued by her legal team.
“No Californian should be falsely arrested, defamed, or retaliated against because of who they are or what they stand for. The abuse of power that I endured undermines public trust and cannot be ignored.”
Cervantes suffered damages in excess of $25,000, her lawyer, James Quadra, said via email.
A legal claim can be a precursor to a lawsuit. Public agencies typically reject claims and claimants often sue afterward.
The Sacramento district attorney’s office declined to file charges against Cervantes following the two-vehicle collision on May 19 just blocks from the Capitol building. A Ford Explorer struck Cervantes’ state-owned Toyota Camry at an intersection, police said.
A blood sample taken from Cervantes after the accident was “negative for any measurable amount of alcohol or drugs,” a DA spokesperson said at the time.
Cervantes, a first-term state senator who served in the Assembly from 2016 to 2024, represents Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, Moreno Valley, Perris, San Jacinto, and parts of Corona, Fontana, Menifee, and Riverside in the legislature.
Police cited Cervantes, 37, on suspicion of driving under the influence of a drug after visiting her in the hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries. Officers “observed objective signs of intoxication” in Cervantes during the visit, a Sacramento police spokesperson said at the time.
The senator insisted from the start she was not impaired at the time of the crash and that police “accosted” and “improperly detained” her at the hospital. Cervantes’ office released what it said was an emergency room report and lab results that proved she was sober at the time of the crash.
The news release from Cervantes’ lawyers accuses Sacramento police of violating her rights and arresting her without probable cause.
Police “submitted false sworn statements” to get a warrant to get Cervantes’ blood drawn even though she volunteered to do so, lawyers alleged. The senator also was forced “to defend unfounded claims to regain her driving privileges” due to officers’ false statements, according to her legal team.
The claim also accuses authorities of leaking “false claims” to the news media that Cervantes “was driving under the influence at the time of the accident with the malicious intent of damaging her reputation.”
Besides alleging her citation stemmed from her license plate reader bill, the claim also accuses police of bias against Cervantes because of her Latina and LGBTQ+ identity.
“Members of the Sacramento Police Department violated the law in an effort to destroy the reputation of an exemplary member of the State Senate,” Quadra, Cervantes’ lawyer, said in the release.
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