Video footage released by the Long Beach Police Department shows Alameda City Councilmember Trish Herrera Spencer was heavily intoxicated and refused assistance from law enforcement while attending the League of California Cities Conference on Oct. 18 in Long Beach.
The department’s incident report and officer body cam footage, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and given to the Bay Area News Group, show Spencer intoxicated and unresponsive as first responders treated her as a “medical emergency,” according to police interactions in the body cam footage.
In the wake of Bay Area News Group’s initial reporting of the incident, the Alameda City Council will consider reprimanding Spencer at its next meeting on Nov. 6 for violating the city’s code of conduct while on a taxpayer-funded trip representing the city.
“(T)he inappropriate conduct of a Councilmember undermines the public’s trust in all matters that come before the Council,” the agenda item states.
Spencer is seeking reelection to the Alameda City Council where she has served since 2016. Spencer is running against Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Greg Boller, journalist Thushan Amarasiriwardena, special education teacher Michelle Pryor and electrical engineer Steve Slauson.
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 representatives from across California attended an event at the Bo Beau Kitchen & Roof Tap, located at 144 Pine Ave., from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Thursday.
According to LBPD cam footage, one officer had seen Spencer at a 7-11 earlier in the evening, noting her dilated pupils, a common sign of intoxication. Around midnight, a bystander helped Spencer walk along Pine Avenue en route to her hotel when she collapsed next to Alegria nightclub at 115 Pine Ave., according to officers’ comments in body cam footage. She and the bystander attempted to enter the club, but the bouncer denied her entry because she was unable to speak. Spencer briefly returned to the sidewalk before she collapsed next to the club, leading the bystander to call police at 12:12 a.m.
As officers arrived at the scene, body cam footage showed Spencer lying on the ground and supporting herself with one arm, struggling to respond to officers’ basic questions about her identity and where she was staying. Officers repeatedly told her she was “not in trouble” as they attempted to help her stand up. But Spencer refused their help, saying, “I’m good.” She then laid back on the ground and became unresponsive.
An Emergency Medical Services team from the Long Beach Fire Department arrived at the scene at 12:45 a.m., picked her in a gurney and placed her in an ambulance to go to a local hospital for treatment of a head contusion and bruising around her arms, according to body cam footage and the LBPD.
In a statement Spencer gave to Bay Area News Group on Oct. 22, she said she was the victim of a crime that left her concussed with “little recollection of the event.”
“Unfortunately, a few social media sites and posters are posting that I was arrested and many other false statements. They are lies fabricated by political opponents attempting to smear my reputation,” Spencer wrote.
She also claimed that she was missing personal effects, including her jewelry. However, Spencer is wearing jewelry in the officers’ body cam footage.
Spencer also claimed her medical provider was required to file a “Suspicious Injury Report” that evening because of the suspicion that her injuries came from an assault or abusive conduct. However, suspicious injury reports may also be filed if the injuries could be “inflicted by the injured person’s own act,” according to the California Office of Emergency Services.
The video footage shows that as LBPD officers relayed information to EMS responders, an officer stated, “She’s not the victim of a crime… whatever’s wrong with her, she did it to herself.”
Additional Bay Area News Group inquiries to Spencer, following the release of the LBPD body cam footage, were forwarded to her friend and retired attorney Paul Foreman, citing her ongoing recovery from a concussion.
“Her public statement indicates she has no memory of the police encounter and limited memory of the Long Beach medical assistance and that she had suffered a concussion,” Foreman wrote to the Bay Area News Group. “She did not become aware that she might have been attacked until well after the incident when she noticed that she was missing personal effects.”
