Krista Perez, a Democrat running for the state House seat in Washington’s 29th Legislative District, Position 1, has been charged with DUI following a crash on South G Street in Tacoma that damaged five vehicles, according to Tacoma Police and reporting by The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red.
Perez finished first in last month’s primary and will face incumbent state Rep. Melanie Morgan, also a Democrat, in the November general election after the top two primary finishers advanced.
Police say Perez’s 2019 Chevrolet Silverado struck a parked car shortly after midnight on August 11, setting off a chain-reaction collision. Prosecutors have charged her with DUI and added a refusal enhancement tied to both the crash scene and a later encounter with officers at Tacoma Police headquarters.
Body camera footage obtained by The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red shows an officer questioning Perez at the scene. When asked whether she had been in an accident, Perez initially told the officer, “I did not,” adding, “I don’t know. I’ve never been in an accident before.”
Perez told the officer she had come from a friend’s business on Tacoma Avenue South. Asked if she had been drinking, she said, “I just had some wine while I was there,” describing it as one glass. When the officer asked how large the glass was, she told him, “I think you might need to contact the business.”
Asked to rate her own sobriety on a scale of zero to 10, Perez first said she wanted to go home, then rated herself a four when pressed a second time.
The officer repeatedly told Perez that standardized field sobriety tests were voluntary and asked if she would take them. She declined, telling him, “Not right now. I’d like to go home first.” When the officer clarified that going home was not an option until the testing question was resolved, Perez again said she wanted to go home first, which the officer treated as a refusal.
She was then placed under arrest. Video shows her repeatedly telling the officer she did not “know what any of this means” before being informed she was under arrest for DUI.
Under Washington law, declining roadside sobriety tests is a separate matter from the refusal enhancement in Perez’s case. According to an arrest report cited by The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red, that enhancement stems from what happened later at Tacoma Police headquarters, where officers say Perez did not produce a usable breath sample across three attempts before the testing machine timed out.
Additional footage from inside the patrol car shows Perez crying and praying for several minutes, saying, “Help me, God. Help me. Help me. Holy Spirit, help me, God.”
No legal bar to serving despite charge
Washington law does not prevent someone facing a DUI charge from serving in the state legislature, and Perez’s candidacy is not barred by the pending case. Other Democratic lawmakers have remained in office following alcohol-related incidents. House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon apologized in February after acknowledging he had been drinking before a House Appropriations Committee hearing.
“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.
Perez advances to the November general election against Morgan as the DUI case proceeds through the courts.
