The dashcam video showing the DUI arrest of Paul Pelosi, the husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), has finally been released by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) after he plead guilty on Tuesday.
Fox News [1] reported that the video shows Paul, 82, slurring his speech and showing what police had said was “objective” signs of intoxication as cops ask him to perform sobriety tests.
Paul crashed his 2021 Porsche at 10:17 p.m. on May 28 into a 2014 Jeep, which sustained “major collision damage.” Police found Paul in the driver’s seat of his car at the intersection of California Route 29 and Oakville Cross Road in Napa.
In the video, Paul can be heard admitting to an officer that he had a “glass of champagne before dinner” and also “a glass of white.” He claimed that he started drinking at around 7 p.m., and finished around 8. Investigators later determined he had a blood-alcohol content of .082%, and he spent that night in the county jail.
Check out the full dash cam video for yourself below.
Court documents state that when police asked Paul for his license, he handed them his driver’s license and an “11-99 Foundation” card. This foundation is a California Highway Patrol charity that supports officers and provides scholarships for their children.
The documents also state that Paul showed “signs of impairment” during field sobriety tests, and officers “observed objective signs and symptoms of alcohol intoxication.” The husband of the Democrat Speaker of the House had red, watery eyes and appeared “unsteady on his feet.”
“He’s constantly grabbing onto the patrol car just to keep his balance,” one officer can be seen telling another in the video. As the officer says this, Paul can be seen walking in front of the dashcam with his hand on the front push bar.
The other driver, who was identified only as John Doe, later told Napa County prosecutors that he had begun suffering pain in his upper right arm, right shoulder and neck the day after the crash. He also said that he was suffering from headaches and found it hard to lift his right arm.
Paul plead guilty to a DUI charge on Tuesday and was sentenced to three years on probation and a three-month DUI program. He also must pay restitution to the other driver, and have a certified ignition device installed on his vehicle for a year.
On top of that, Paul was sentenced to five days in jail, although authorities say it is unlikely that he will actually spend any time behind bars. Napa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Solga said during sentencing that Paul already served two days in jail following his DUI arrest, and received conduct credit for two other days. He added that for his fifth day, Paul will perform eight hours of work service, meaning no more jail time is necessary for him.
NBC News [2] reported that Paul did not appear in court to enter his plea, with the DA saying that he “was not ordered by the court to personally appear.” Because he was charged with a DUI misdemeanor, he was not required to appear under California law unless ordered by the judge.
Paul has been married to Nancy, who claims not to drink alcohol, since 1963, and they have five children together. She’s refused to comment publicly on her husband’s arrest, and even went through with giving the commencement speech at Brown University in Rhode Island the morning after it happened.