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Alameda City Council to Consider Reprimanding Trish Herrera Spencer After Public Intoxication Bodycam Released

Alameda City Council to Consider Reprimanding Trish Herrera Spencer After Public Intoxication Bodycam Released

Video footage released by the Long Beach Police Department shows Alameda City Councilwoman Trish Herrera Spencer being highly intoxicated and refusing help from law enforcement while attending the League of California Cities conference Oct. 18 in Long Beach.

The department’s incident report and the officer’s body camera footage, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and provided to the Bay Area News Group, show that Spencer was intoxicated and unresponsive when EMS personnel treated her as a “medical emergency help”, according to reports from the police in the body. camera footage.

On the wave of the Bay Area News Group initial incident reportwill be considered by the Alameda City Council scolding Spencer at the next meeting on Nov. 6 for violating the city’s code of conduct while on a taxpayer-funded trip representing the city.

“Misbehavior by a member of the Council undermines public confidence in all matters brought before the Council,” the agenda item reads.

Spencer is seeking re-election to the Alameda City Council, where she has served since 2016. Spencer is running against Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Greg Boller, journalist Tushan Amarasiriwardena, special education teacher Michelle Pryor and electrical engineer Steve Sloson.

Spencer and other council members traveled to Long Beach to attend the League of California Cities conference, where local government leaders attend workshops and networking events to “take their organization to the next level.” City officials from across California attended the event at Bo Beau Kitchen & Roof Tap, located at 144 Pine Ave., from 4 to 11 p.m. on Thursday.

According to LBPD dashcam footage, an officer saw Spencer at the 7-11 earlier in the evening, noticing her dilated pupils, a common sign of intoxication. Around midnight, a bystander was helping Spencer walk down Pine Avenue on the way to her hotel when she collapsed outside the Alegria nightclub at 115 Pine Ave., according to officers’ comments on the dash cam. She and a passerby tried to enter the club, but the bouncer wouldn’t let her in because she couldn’t speak. Spencer briefly returned to the sidewalk before passing out outside the club, prompting a passerby to call police at 12:12 a.m.

When officers arrived at the scene, body camera footage showed Spencer lying on the ground with one arm supported as she attempted to answer basic questions from officers about her identity and whereabouts. Officers repeatedly told her she was “not in trouble” as they tried to help her up. But Spencer refused their help, saying, “I’m fine.” Then she fell to the ground and became unresponsive.

EMS crews from the Long Beach Fire Department arrived at the scene at 12:45 a.m., lifted her in a gurney and placed her in an ambulance to be taken to a local hospital for treatment of a head contusion and bruising around her arms, according to body camera footage and LBPD.

In a statement provided to the Bay Area News Group on Oct. 22, Spencer said she was the victim of a crime that left her with a concussion with “a bad memory of the event.”

“Unfortunately, several social media sites and posters have posted reports that I have been arrested and many other false claims. This is a lie fabricated by political opponents trying to smear my reputation,” Spencer wrote.

She also claimed that her personal belongings, including jewelry, were missing. However, Spencer is wearing jewelry in the footage captured by the officers’ body cameras.

Spencer also claimed that her medical professional should have filed a “Report of Suspicious Injury” that evening because of the suspicion that her injuries were the result of an assault or abusive behavior. However, suspicious injury reports may also be filed if the injuries may have been “self-inflicted by the injured person,” according to the California Office of Emergency Services.

The video shows that as LBPD officers relayed the information to 911, the officer stated, “She was not a victim of a crime … whatever happened to her, she did it herself.”

Additional Bay Area News Group inquiries about Spencer following the release of the LBPD body camera video were directed to her friend and retired attorney Paul Foreman, citing her continued recovery from her concussion.

“Her public statement indicates that she has no recollection of the encounter with the police and limited recollection of medical care in Long Beach, and that she suffered a concussion,” Foreman wrote to the Bay Area News Group. “She didn’t realize she might have been attacked until after the incident when she noticed her personal belongings were missing.”