Four Cheerleaders Take on Mayor In Court
Four cheerleaders filed a lawsuit against Alan Long, the former mayor of Murrieta, California, on November 10, after the then-mayor rear ended their vehicle with his pickup truck on October 16.
At the time of the crash, Long’s blood-alcohol content was .08, the legal limit, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. He was arrested at the scene of the accident, and resigned from office shortly after. He was later charged with felony drunken driving.
One of the girls, Melissa Reynolds, suffered fractured neck vertebrae and was confined to a hospital bed at home.
“She’s in a lot of pain, she’s suffering,” said her grandmother, Rozette Dewart. “She’s suffering tremendously.”
“She can’t move her head,” said Riverside attorney Jean-Simon Serrano, who filed the lawsuit, and also added that the three other girls — Adrienna Williams and sisters Chloe and Camille Rogers, were out of the hospital, but still receiving treatment.
Now, the high-school students have filed a lawsuit against Long, alleging negligence in connection with violation of California’s drunken and reckless driving laws. According to the complaint, “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.”
The civil complaint alleges that the four teens suffered “severe personal injuries,” which consequently incurred medical expenses and loss of earnings.
Most worrying of all, Serrano alleges that on the night of the initial incident, Long tried to delay the authorities’ arrival, saying that he “delayed and tried to deflect any involvement of authorities while his blood alcohol was too high for driving. These attempts failed.”
“Even after and with these delays and after emergency personnel had come and gone taking the injured teens to the hospital, police conducted field sobriety tests on Mr. Long. He failed these tests and was arrested for driving while intoxicated,” said Serrano.
Long is currently free on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to be arraigned on December 11.
