Four high school cheerleaders injured in an Oct. 16 crash are already suing drunken driving suspect/former Murrieta Mayor/since reelected City Councilman/Anaheim Fire Department Battalion Chief Alan Long for alleged negligence.
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Separately, the 44-year-old is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 11 on a felony count of DUI causing injury.
The girls were in a Chrysler 300 that had stopped and was waiting to make a left turn around 8:15 p.m. when Long rear-ended the car with his full-size pickup, according to the Murrieta Police Department, which added their then-mayor was arrested on suspicion of DUI after showing signs of impairment and failing a field sobriety test. His blood-alcohol level later tested at .08 percent or over the legal limit, according to cops.
They say Long told officers he only drank about half a glass of wine at home with dinner about an hour before the crash. Long also claimed driver Chloe Rogers slammed on the brakes for no reason and that he tried to avoid hitting the Chrysler but could not, but investigators say they found no signs of skid marks at the crash scene.
Seventeen-year-old Rogers, who says she had her turn signal on before the crash, and the other three girls, ages 14 to 16, were taken to a hospital with moderate to major injuries. The Orange County Register quotes the grandmother of a 16-year-old victim, who suffered spinal fractures in the crash, saying she is in a lot of pain and is spending most of her time in a hospital bed at home.
When Murrieta made national news this summer for turning away busloads of undocumented Central American teens, Long said he wouldn't “stand for our country's laws to be violated.”
“As fire battalion chief and as a 'first responder' and as mayor of the city of Murrieta at the time of the incident, Alan William Long had sworn to uphold these laws, yet he knowingly and intentionally violated them,” reads the girls' complaint, which does not list a damage amount.
“Long has special and extensive training and knowledge of the criminality of drinking and driving and of the grave dangers to himself and others posed by his drinking and driving; but he nonetheless chose to drink until intoxicated and then operate his vehicle.”
Many residents rushed to support Long and demonize the girls after the crash, according to their lawyer.
Long, who stepped down as mayor after the crash, was reelected to the City Council Nov. 4. The civic leader has yet to reach out and apologize to the teens.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
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