Sacramento police must apologize for harming a California state senator | Opinion
The Sacramento Police Department wrongfully accused a California Senator after she was the victim of a traffic accident, claiming she was showing “objective signs of intoxication.”
Yet Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside, maintained her innocence. And with the release of a toxicology report on Friday by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, her name and record have officially been cleared.
Now, the Sacramento Police Department and its chief, Kathy Lester, owe the legislator a public apology.
Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang released a strong statement on Friday in support of Cervantes and also urged the city’s police department to publicly apologize.
“As a public institution, we must take responsibility when harm is caused, especially to someone who has dedicated their life to public service,” Vang wrote in a statement. “A sincere apology is the first step toward accountability and rebuilding trust with our community.”
Unfortunately, Cervantes is unlikely to receive an apology.
I know this because I also deserved an apology after the Sacramento Police Department handcuffed and attempted to detain me while I was reporting on a protest inside City Council chambers last March, despite my First Amendment and state-given rights to be present inside the room.
Not only did an apology never come from the police, but it took more than six months before any representative from the department would even sit down with someone from The Bee to discuss it privately. Even then, police officials only wanted to meet with my editor, not with me.
So this incident is deeply unsurprising. The Sacramento Police Department has a history of abusing its power. From the 2018 killing of an unarmed Stephon Clark, to their behavior at the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 for which they are being sued, to Cervantes’ detention on May 19 of this year, how are Sacramentans expected to hold any trust in their police?
“If this can happen to a State Senator, imagine how many everyday residents have been harmed similarly, many of whom we may never hear about,” Vang said. “We must hold our public servants, especially law enforcement officers, to a higher standard. They are entrusted with the safety and well-being of our communities.”
Perhaps the worst and most degrading aspect of this is that it’s not inconceivable that Cervantes’ ethnicity and gender had something to do with the police’s suspicions that day, even though she was the victim of a sideswipe and in the hospital being checked for injury when the detention occurred.
She was a victim and yet she was treated as a suspect. Still, Chief Lester will be holding out her hand for millions more in her department’s budget next year at the next council meeting on June 10, just as the city tries to climb out of its $44 million deficit — and every other department has willingly offered cuts.
Every child knows that when you are in the wrong, you apologize. There can be no reasonable excuse or delay from the SPD now.
This story was originally published May 30, 2025 at 3:44 PM.
