Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) officers responded to a report of an intoxicated woman who was identified as Councilmember Trish Herrera Spencer on October 18 at around 12:12 a.m. Spencer was in Long Beach attending the 2024 League of California Cities Conference. LBPD bodycam videos and a police report shed more light on the incident.
Five of the bodycam videos show five different perspectives of LBPD officers arriving at the scene, just outside a bar that was blaring music, located at Pine Avenue and East Broadway.
Map of Long Beach, CA showing the Convention Center and the intersection of Pine Avenue and East Broadway.
“You’re not in any trouble, we just want to make sure you’re OK,” one of the officers tells Spencer, who is lying on the sidewalk.
One officer notes that Spencer has a “little bleeding” near her eyebrow “probably because she fell—she was completely out.”
The police report states, “CP [Complaining Party] TRIED TO HELP HER WALK TO THE METRO STA AFTER SHE FEEL ON THE SIDEWALK BUT SHE REF’D ANY HELP FORM THE CP SO CP LEFT HER F/O THE BAR AND THE BOUNCER AT THE BAR WOULDN’T LET HER IN.” (Exact quote from the LBPD report. Any abbreviations, misspellings, or typographical errors are exactly as shown in the report.)
One officer notes that they’re “treating it as medical, not criminal.”
The LBPD statement that was provided to the Alameda Post following the incident stated that, at this time, there is no indication a crime has occurred.
Spencer had her purse around her body. She also had a large blue tote bag in which one of the officers placed the Councilmember’s phone. She can be seen wearing rings in the bodycam videos. “I want to make sure your stuff doesn’t get stolen,” the officer told her.
About five minutes after LBPD arrived at the scene, the fire department arrived with an emergency stretcher. As Spencer was being placed into the truck, one of the police officers noted that they’d seen Spencer earlier at a 7-Eleven, where her behavior appeared “weird” and “out of place.”
The video that takes place in the emergency department at the hospital is blurred. One officer can be heard saying, “I’m letting the staff deal with her right now, she’s uncooperative and she’s heavily intoxicated.”
Before the sound is cut, one emergency staff member says, “I’ll hold her down for you.” Following obscenities aimed at the medical staff, Spencer threatens to “call Chief Joshi” of the Alameda Police Department.
Spencer did not provide a comment regarding the bodycam videos and police report to the Alameda Post upon request. Instead, our correspondence was forwarded to her friend and retired attorney Paul Foreman, citing her recovery from a concussion.
“Trish’s 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,” wrote Foreman. “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 and after medical personnel at her subsequent visit to a Bay Area ER the next day advised that her in juries[sic] raised a suspicion that she had been attacked which required that they report that to the police.”
In her previous statement given to the Post following the incident, Spencer said she has “little recollection of the event” and believes she is the victim of a crime.
“Follow-up treatment at a local hospital ER Department documented a concussion and abrasions and bruising to the top and side of my head as well as bruises on the inside and outside of my arms,” she said in the statement. “My medical provider explained that she was required by law to file a Suspicious Injury Report, which is required when there’s a reasonable suspicion that my injuries were from an assault or abusive conduct by a third person against me, etc.”
“Some of my valuable personal belongings, including jewelry, are missing,” she also noted.
Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft and Councilmember Malia Vella have requested a referral for the Wednesday, November 6 City Council meeting to consider a resolution to admonish Spencer for violating the City Council Code of Conduct. Spencer was in Long Beach representing the City of Alameda at the League of California Cities Conference, which hosts leaders from all sections of city government, including mayors, council members, city managers, city clerks, city attorneys, fiscal officers, and other city staff. Spencer is up for re-election on November 5 for one of two open seats on Alameda City Council.
Kelsey Goeres is the Managing Editor of the Alameda Post. Contact her via [email protected]. Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Kelsey-Goeres.
