Body camera footage shows Democratic state House candidate Krista Perez admitting she drank wine, refusing sobriety tests, and crying in the back of a police cruiser after a chain-reaction crash in Tacoma.

Perez, 40, struck a parked car on Tacoma Avenue South shortly after midnight on August 11, setting off a collision that damaged five vehicles, the Tacoma Police Department said. Officers found her standing outside her truck, its front airbag deployed. Within minutes, the encounter, captured on the arresting officer's body camera, turned into a drawn-out roadside exchange in which Perez denied the crash, admitted to drinking, declined every field sobriety test, and told the officer she "would like to go home."

She did not go home. She went to Pierce County Corrections, where she was booked on a DUI charge that morning. Fox News reported Perez was also hit with a refusal enhancement after she failed to provide a usable breath sample at police headquarters despite three attempts.

Perez won the Democratic primary for Washington state's 29th Legislative District, Position 1, a state House seat. She is not some fringe candidate. She finished first in her primary and is now asking voters to send her to the legislature while facing a criminal DUI charge.

Perez rated her own sobriety a four out of ten, then refused every test

The body camera footage, first reported by The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red, lays out the stop in uncomfortable detail. When the officer asked Perez whether she had been in an accident, she answered flatly:

"I did not."

The officer pressed. Perez shifted her story, saying she did not know what happened and had "never been in an accident before." She could not name her insurance company, telling the officer she had switched providers "within the last two weeks." She suggested the officer "contact the business", a friend's business on Tacoma Avenue South she said she had been visiting.

When the officer asked whether she had anything to drink, Perez acknowledged she had consumed wine. Breitbart News reported her exact words:

"I just had some wine while I was there."

Moments later she narrowed the claim: "I had a glass of wine. One glass of wine." But when the officer asked her to rate her own sobriety on a scale of zero to ten, zero being sober, ten being unable to function, Perez said "four." A self-reported four out of ten after one glass of wine is a number that does not add up on its own terms.

The officer explained that field sobriety tests were voluntary. Perez could say no. She said she was "confused about what our questions are right now." The officer laid out the choice plainly: the tests happen now, not later at home. Perez declined.

The arrest followed immediately. "It means you're under arrest for DUI," the officer told her.

Inside the patrol car, Perez sobbed and prayed for divine help

What happened next in the back of the cruiser is where the footage drew national attention. Perez, now handcuffed, broke down crying. She repeated "Can you please help me?" over and over. She prayed aloud in Spanish, asking God for help.

The New York Post reported that Perez cried out in the patrol car:

"Help me, God. Help me. Help me. Holy Spirit, help me, God."

At various points during the encounter, Perez made statements that had no clear connection to the DUI stop. She told the officer, "I think what I assume tonight is that you did not experience domestic violence in your life." She declared, "I choose gratitude in my life." And when the officer asked if there was anything else she wanted to share, she responded: "Anything that you are requesting to be shared right now would be under duress."

When the cruiser arrived at the station, Perez said she did not know how to get out of the vehicle. The episode is not a brief moment of confusion. It is a sustained, recorded sequence in which a candidate for public office could not provide basic information, could not follow straightforward instructions, and could not maintain a coherent account of what had just happened.

Perez is hardly the first Democratic figure to land in the back of a police car in recent years. The Massachusetts Democratic Party chair was also caught on body camera during a drunk driving arrest, in a strikingly similar scene of a party official confronting the consequences of getting behind the wheel after drinking.

Three failed breath samples earned Perez a refusal enhancement

Fox News and the New York Post both reported that Perez's legal exposure did not end with the standard DUI charge. At police headquarters, officers gave her three chances to provide a usable breath sample. She failed all three attempts. Under Washington state law, that failure triggered a refusal enhancement, an additional charge that carries stiffer penalties than a standard DUI.

The New York Post noted that Washington state law does not bar someone facing a DUI charge from serving in the legislature. If Perez wins the general election in the 29th Legislative District, voters will have sent a candidate with a pending DUI case, complete with a refusal enhancement, to Olympia.

The pattern of Democratic candidates and officials facing arrest while running for or holding office has become difficult to ignore. A Hawaii Democratic congressional candidate was arrested after a beach altercation earlier, and high-profile figures connected to the party have faced their own legal troubles, including Paul Pelosi, who was charged with a misdemeanor hit-and-run after a crash in Napa County.

Five damaged cars, zero accountability so far

The Tacoma Police Department confirmed that Perez's truck struck a parked car and triggered a chain reaction that damaged five vehicles in total. No injuries were reported in the information available, but the property damage alone makes this more than a routine traffic stop. Five car owners on Tacoma Avenue South woke up to damaged vehicles because a state House candidate drove after drinking and plowed into a parked car.

Perez has not made any public statement addressing the arrest or the footage, based on available reporting from Breitbart News, Fox News, and the New York Post. No response from her campaign has surfaced in any of the coverage.

The silence is notable. Candidates who find themselves on body camera footage, handcuffed, sobbing, unable to answer basic questions, typically have something to say afterward. Perez, so far, has offered nothing. Meanwhile, other political candidates facing criminal charges have at least been forced to address their legal situations publicly.

Several open questions remain. No court filing beyond the initial booking has been reported. The specific business Perez said she was visiting has not been identified. And the voters of the 29th Legislative District now face a choice about whether a candidate who rated herself a four out of ten on a sobriety scale, wrecked five cars, and refused every test offered to her deserves a seat in the state House.

Voters expect their representatives to follow the same laws they enforce. Perez wants to create the rules in Olympia. The body camera footage suggests she has trouble following the ones already on the books.