Sacramento-area cop arrested on drug charges gives up police certification
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- William Clotworthy surrendered his California POST certification on Nov. 11, 2025.
- Clotworthy left the CHP on Oct. 15, 2025, after his Oct. 10 arrest in Citrus Heights.
- He was arrested on drug possession and driving under the influence charges.
A Sacramento-area California Highway Patrol officer arrested two months ago in Citrus Heights on drug charges no longer works for the state agency and has given up his law enforcement certification.
William Griffith Clotworthy II was arrested Oct. 10 by the Citrus Heights Police Department near Antelope and Lauppe roads on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance and driving under the combined influence of alcohol and drugs, Citrus Heights police arrest logs showed.
On Monday, Clotworthy was added to a list on the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training website. The list shows that Clotworthy surrendered his POST certification on Nov. 11. Surrendering your certification has the same effect as having the certification revoked in that it cannot be reactivated.
Lt. Matt Gutierrez, a CHP spokesperson, on Monday confirmed that Clotworthy is no longer a CHP employee. Gutierrez said Clotworthy’s last day with the CHP was Oct. 15, and he said he did not have any more information to release about Clotworthy’s departure.
At the time of his arrest, Clotworthy was assigned to the CHP’s Valley Division. The CHP has said that it “fully supports a thorough investigation” into the incident.
“The CHP takes all allegations of employee misconduct very seriously,” the CHP said in a written statement several days after Clotworthy’s arrest. “When an employee is suspected of misconduct, the department takes swift and appropriate action to investigate the allegations.”
Earlier in Clotworthy’s career, he had been cited for heroism for service during a deadly 2018 mudslide in Montecito. He and his patrol partner at the time were nearly swept away by torrential rains that pummeled the Santa Barbara County community of Montecito in the early hours of Jan. 9, 2018. The mudslide sent rivers of mud, boulders and debris that flattened homes and left 23 people dead in its wake.
Clotworthy and then-partner Michael Fabila escaped the flow and went back to work for much of the next 24 hours blocking traffic on Highway 101, actions their CHP superiors said saved lives.
Clotworthy, then 28, and his partner’s patrol car was carried away by the debris flow as they drove along a local road. Clotworthy was behind the wheel, he recounted for the Santa Barbara County publication Noozhawk.
According to court records, Clotworthy has not been changed by the Sacramento County District’s Attorney’s Office following his October arrest.
The Bee’s Darrell Smith contributed to this story.
