RivCo Senator Accused Of DUI Provides Drug Screen, Denies Charges

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — A Riverside County senator is working to prove her innocence after she says she was wrongly accused of driving impaired just before she was involved in a car accident near the state capitol on Monday.

Sen. Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside) has released medical records that she says prove there were no drugs or alcohol in her system when the collision occurred in Sacramento.

“The accusation that I was driving under the influence is utterly false,” she said in a statement to numerous news outlets. “I take this matter seriously and in the interest of transparency, I am releasing my hospital exam report and hospital lab results.”

The Sacramento Police Department, which cited Cervantes, has said that the officers who met with the senator at a hospital on Monday after the crash suspected that she was under the influence of drugs, Politico reported.

Cervantes, 37, widely shared her results from a urine drug screen that showed undetectable levels for a list of drugs, including THC, amphetamines, barbiturates, opiates and cocaine.

The sample was collected on Tuesday, May 20 at 4:27 p.m., more than 24 hours after police said the crash occurred.

Cervantes also shared documentation of her visit to an emergency room at Kaiser Permanente's South Sacramento Medical Center at 4:13 p.m. on Monday after the crash. However, large parts of the report are blacked out.

The report says the senator was complaining of lower back, hip and knee pain after the crash. It also details that her blood alcohol level was less than .01 percent.

Police had reportedly taken their own blood sample after meeting the senator at the hospital. The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office is still waiting on those lab results.

“Once we have received those reports, all of the facts in the case will be reviewed for a filing decision,” according to a statement the office released to Politico.

Cervantes was cited with a misdemeanor before she was released from the hospital on Monday.

The lawmaker says she was seeking care in the emergency room after a large SUV t-boned her sedan. Following the crash, she maintains she was involuntarily detained at the hospital for several hours.

Cervantes has denied the charges and has accused police of "accosting" her.