A California state senator alleges that police officers fabricated evidence to falsely accuse her of driving under the influence after she was hit at an intersection near the state Capitol.
Her motive, she claims, was discriminatory prejudice and a law that she wrote and that the authorities did not like.
Now, she is suing the city of Sacramento alleging “a deliberate and unlawful campaign to falsely accuse, arrest and discredit her.”
On Monday, state Sen. Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside) filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the police officers who cited her for driving under the influence in May. The Sacramento district attorney's office declined to press charges after a blood test showed there were no traces of drugs or alcohol in his system.
Cervantes accuses officers of moving forward with an arrest despite lacking probable cause and building a case against him based on false statements. She said the officers submitted false information to the DMV, forcing her to hire an attorney to avoid having her license suspended or revoked, according to the complaint.
The Riverside County legislator alleges that this conduct was retaliation for a bill she authored that seeks to restrict how law enforcement agencies store and use data from automatic license plate readers. She claims the officers discriminated against her for being a Latina LGBTQ woman and provided more respectful treatment to the white woman responsible for the accident.
Cervantes further alleges that unknown persons within the Sacramento Police Department leaked news of his arrest to the press in a deliberate attempt to tarnish his reputation. Representatives from both the city and the Police Department said Monday they could not comment on pending litigation.
“This case is about abuse of power,” Cervantes' attorney, James Quadra, said in a statement Monday. “The agents ignored the facts, fabricated evidence and tried to turn the victim into a criminal.”
In September, Cervantes filed a government lawsuit against the city, a necessary preliminary step to take additional legal action. Their lawsuit, filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of California, seeks damages for violations of federal civil rights and state law, including false arrests, unlawful searches and seizures, and defamation.
The accident took place at 12:55 p.m. on May 19, 2025, when Cervantes' car was struck by a driver who failed to yield to the right of way at an intersection in downtown Sacramento. The state senator was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment, where agents gathered her and interviewed her for hours, according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges that “despite clear damage to the vehicles showing that the other driver, a young white woman, had vandalized Senator Cervantes’ vehicle,” the responding officer “treated the at-fault driver with a deference and respect not afforded Senator Cervantes.”
At the hospital, one of the officers requested that Cervantes submit to a “subjective field sobriety test” that included measuring his eye's response to stimuli, according to the complaint. Cervantes said this request concerned him since he did not break any traffic laws and was the victim of a dangerous driver.
In order to obtain a warrant to obtain a blood draw, the officer “falsely stated that Senator Cervantes had an unsteady gait, slurred speech, and appeared drowsy,” the complaint alleges.
After news of the accident became public, a Sacramento Police Department spokesperson told reporters that “based on objective signs, officers believed Cervantes was under the influence of a central nervous system depressant.” Redacted test results that Cervantes decided to share with the media showed he had a blood alcohol level close to zero, and the district attorney declined to file charges later that month.
His lawsuit accuses parties within the Police Department of falsely telling the media that he was driving under the influence “with the intent to harm Senator Cervantes due to his sponsorship of SB 274 and his status as a Latino member of the LGBTQ+ community.”
The bill sought to restrict the use of automatic license plate readers by law enforcement, following concerns that the technology was being used to violate driver privacy and that data was being illegally shared with out-of-state agencies.
Civil liberties groups like the ACLU have demanded that California police stop sharing automatic license plate reader data with agencies in other states that could use it to prosecute women who travel to seek abortion services.
In June, a Calmatters investigation found that law enforcement agencies across Southern California, including the Los Angeles Police Department, violated state law by sharing information from automated license plate readers with Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Senate Bill 274 passed the state Senate and Assembly but was vetoed in October by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sided with law enforcement agencies that raised concerns about how the bill could hamper their ability to solve crimes.
The bill would have limited the lists that agencies could use to monitor certain cars, required more security and data privacy training for officers, and mandated that certain data be deleted after 60 days.
In a letter explaining his veto, Newsom wrote that the bill “failed to strike the delicate balance between protecting individual privacy and ensuring public safety.” He noted that in cases such as cold cases, license plate data is necessary to solve crimes beyond a 60-day period.
