Body camera footage shows Washington state Democratic House candidate Krista Perez admitting she drank wine, refusing sobriety tests, and pleading with God in the back of a patrol car after a crash that damaged five vehicles.
Perez, who is running for the state House seat in Washington's 29th Legislative District, was arrested for DUI shortly after midnight on August 11 after her 2019 Chevrolet Silverado allegedly slammed into a parked car on South G Street in Tacoma. The impact set off a chain reaction that damaged five vehicles in all. Prosecutors have since charged her with DUI with a refusal enhancement, a stiffer charge that stems from what happened after she arrived at Tacoma Police headquarters.
The footage, obtained by The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red and aired by Fox News, captures nearly every phase of the encounter, from the officer's roadside questioning to Perez's emotional collapse in the back of the patrol car. For a candidate who finished first in last month's primary and is headed to a November general election, the video raises questions that go well beyond a traffic stop.
When the responding officer asked Perez whether she had been in an accident, she said flatly, "I did not." Pressed further, she added, "I don't know. I've never been in an accident before." Five damaged vehicles on the street told a different story.
She did acknowledge drinking. "I just had some wine while I was there," Perez told the officer, saying she had been driving from a friend's business on Tacoma Avenue South. When the officer asked how large the glass was, she deflected: "I think you might need to contact the business."
The officer then asked Perez to rate her own sobriety on a scale of zero to ten, with zero meaning completely sober. She gave herself a four. That self-assessment alone suggested she believed she was closer to impaired than not, and it came from her own mouth, on camera.
The officer explained that field sobriety tests were voluntary and described them as a way to determine whether she was impaired. Perez's answer was not a refusal on legal grounds. It was a plea to leave.
"Not right now. I'd like to go home first," she said. The officer was direct:
"You're not going to go home first. I'm going to tell you that right now, okay? So your options between the test, yes or no, that's going to be determined tonight, right now, not when you go home. So would you like to take these tests or no?"
Perez pushed back again: "Yeah, I would like to go home first." Under Washington state law, declining roadside sobriety tests is a separate matter from the refusal enhancement that would later be added to her charge. But the exchange, captured on the officer's body camera, shows a candidate who appeared more focused on avoiding consequences than cooperating with the investigation.
After her arrest, Perez was taken to Tacoma Police headquarters for a breath test. She allegedly did not provide a usable sample after three attempts before the machine timed out. That failure is what triggered the refusal enhancement on her DUI charge, a legal escalation that carries stiffer penalties than a standard DUI.
Throughout the process, Perez repeatedly told officers she "did not know what any of this means" and that she was "confused." She also mentioned she had switched insurance companies just weeks before the incident, a detail that added logistical chaos to an already messy situation but did nothing to address the central question of impairment.
The most striking portion of the footage came from inside the patrol car. Perez, alone in the back seat, broke down.
"Hold on. Hold on. One second. Hold on," she said before the emotion overtook her. Then came the prayer:
"Help me, God. Help me. Help me. Holy Spirit, help me, God."
The footage does not show a politician calculating her next move. It shows a person confronting the reality of what had just happened. But sympathy for a difficult moment does not erase the five damaged vehicles on South G Street, the refusal to cooperate with testing, or the self-reported "four out of ten" sobriety rating that Perez herself volunteered.
Perez finished first in last month's primary for the 29th Legislative District, Position 1 seat. She will face incumbent Democratic state Rep. Melanie Morgan in the November general election. Washington state law does not prohibit someone facing a DUI charge from serving in the legislature, so the race moves forward regardless of the criminal case.
Perez is not the first Washington Democrat to face an alcohol-related controversy in recent memory. House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon acknowledged drinking before a House Appropriations Committee hearing in February. He issued a public statement at the time taking responsibility:
"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 kept his seat. No public statement from Perez responding to the charges or the footage has surfaced.
DUI arrests happen across every party and every demographic. What makes this case notable is the combination of factors: a candidate who just won a primary, video evidence that captures her own words and behavior in real time, a multi-vehicle crash, a refusal to complete breath testing, and a charge that now carries an enhancement. Voters in the 29th District will have all of it in front of them before November.
The footage does not need commentary to make its point. Perez denied the crash, admitted to drinking, rated herself significantly impaired on her own scale, refused field tests, failed to produce a breath sample, and then asked God for help in the back of a squad car. Every one of those facts came from her own mouth or her own conduct, recorded by police cameras.
Accountability is not a partisan principle, but it does require showing up for it. So far, the voters of Tacoma are still waiting.
