Lockyer Returns to Work After Rehab

By Bay City News Service

Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer today is attending her first board meeting since being last month and subsequently .

Lockyer declined to talk to reporters at a board retreat taking place today at a conference center across the street from the county administration building in Oakland.

But in a prepared statement, she said, "Today, I eagerly join my colleagues in carrying on the business of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors."

Lockyer said, "I take full responsibility for the personal mistakes I have made and the personal amends I must make and I deeply apologize to those I love and those who love me."

She added, "I am glad to be back on my feet, happy to be back at work and I thank the many friends and colleagues who sent me well wishes and prayers."

Lockyer, 40, was elected to her post in November 2010 and is married to California state Treasurer Bill Lockyer.

She represents District 2, which encompasses Hayward, Newark and Union City and parts of Fremont and Sunol.

Newark police are investigating her allegations that a former boyfriend assaulted her at a motel in that city on Feb. 3.

The Alameda County District Attorney's Office was also initially investigating the allegations, but then turned the probe over to the California Attorney General's Office because Lockyer formerly worked for an agency connected to the district attorney's office.

Before she was elected to the Board of Supervisors, Lockyer worked for the Alameda County Family Justice Center, an agency in which the district attorney's office and other county departments work togeth her statement, Lockyer said, "I'll have more to say after the attorney general's office completes their work."

Ruben Briones, Lockyer's chief of staff, said Lockyer has missed six regular board meetings and several board retreats in the last two months.

He said the last regular board meeting she participated in was on Jan. 24.

Lockyer plans to attend the next regular meeting this coming Tuesday, Briones said.

In announcing on Feb. 14 that she was at a wellness and recovery center, Lockyer said, "Alcoholism and addiction are diseases from which many of us suffer, and unfortunately, I have not been spared."

She said, "With the strong encouragement of the people in my life who love me, including my husband, my family, and my friends, I decided to get help and treatment so that I may fully heal and recover."

Referring to the Feb. 3 incident, Lockyer said, "The injuries I suffered from that assault will require some time to heal, and I am receiving treatment for them."

In her Feb. 14 statement, Lockyer said a newspaper story that stated that she was violently assaulted by an ex-boyfriend when she met up with him at a Newark motel after she fought with her husband is "generally true."

The story had said Nadia and Bill Lockyer had recently been separated but had gotten back together before the Feb. 3 incident.