Washington state Democrat Krista Perez, who is running for a state House seat, was seen on police video admitting to drinking wine, declining field sobriety tests and begging to go home before praying and crying in the back of a patrol car after her DUI arrest.
Perez finished first in last month’s primary in the 29th Legislative District, Position 1, and will face incumbent state Rep. Melanie Morgan, also a Democrat, in November, as the top two candidates advance to the general.
Tacoma Police said Perez’s 2019 Chevrolet Silverado allegedly struck a parked car on South G Street shortly after midnight on August 11, setting off a chain reaction that damaged five vehicles, according to The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red.
Prosecutors charged her with DUI, with a refusal enhancement in connection with the collision and a later encounter with police.
Body camera footage shows police questioning Perez after the crash and her subsequent arrest, while footage from the backseat of the patrol car shows her praying and sobbing, according to video obtained by The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red.
After police arrive at the scene, Perez told an officer she did not understand what was going on and claims she was not involved in an accident, the footage shows.
“Did you get into an accident here?” the officer asks.
“I did not,” Perez responded.
The officer then asked what happened.
“I don’t know. I’ve never been in an accident before,” she replied.
She also said she switched insurers just weeks before the incident when asked for her documents. She was able to tell the officer the name of the insurance company.
Perez told the officer she was driving from a friend’s business on Tacoma Avenue South when the collision happened.
“Did you have anything to drink tonight?” the officer asked.
“I just had some wine while I was there,” Perez replied.
Asked how much wine she had, Perez said she had one glass.
When the officer asked how big the glass was, she told him, “I think you might need to contact the business.”
The officer then asked her to rate her sobriety on a scale of zero to 10, with zero being completely sober.
She first told the officer that she wants to go home. But when asked a second time, she rated herself a four.
The officer then asked her to take standardized field sobriety tests but stated multiple times that the tests are optional.
“So it’s a series of tests that I take you through to make sure to see if you’re impaired by alcohol, or you’re not. Are you okay with doing that? It’s totally voluntary,” he said.
Perez declined the tests, kept saying she wanted to go home and repeatedly said that she was “confused.”
“Not right now. I’d like to go home first,” she said.
“You’re not going to go home first. I’m going to tell you that right now, okay? So your options between the test, yes or no, that’s going to be determined tonight, right now, not when you go home. So would you like to take these tests or no?” the officer asked.
Perez responded by asking if she was allowed to decline the tests.
“You do have a choice. You can either say yes, or you can say no. They’re totally voluntary tests,” the officer answered.
“Yeah, I would like to go home first,” she replied.
The officer asked whether her answer meant she was declining the tests, and she said yes.
She was then told she was under arrest for DUI and to put her hands behind her back.
“Hold on. Hold on. One second. Hold on,” she said.
Perez repeatedly told the officer that she did “not know what any of this means.” He told her it means she is under arrest for DUI.
Under Washington state law, roadside sobriety tests are not required and declining them is separate from the refusal enhancement prosecutors allege in Perez’s case.
According to an arrest report cited by The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red, the enhancement stems from what occurred later at Tacoma Police headquarters, where police said she did not provide a usable breath sample after three attempts before the machine timed out.
Inside the patrol car, she can be seen in the footage sobbing, praying and asking God to help her, with her crying lasting several minutes.
“Help me, God. Help me. Help me. Holy Spirit, help me, God,” she said.
State law does not prohibit someone with a DUI charge from serving in the legislature. Other Democrat lawmakers have kept their seats after an alcohol-related incident, including House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, who apologized after acknowledging he drank alcohol before a House Appropriations Committee hearing in February.
“I made a poor choice last night by drinking alcohol before we had finished our work for the day. I am disappointed in myself and take responsibility for that poor choice. It won’t happen again, and I’m committed to completing my work this session without alcohol,” Fitzgibbon said in a statement at the time to The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red.
