Paul Pelosi, the 86-year-old husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, crashed his convertible into a parked car in Napa County last Friday and drove away — and nobody arrested him, because in America, the connected class gets a different justice system than you do.
The Napa County Sheriff's Office said Pelosi struck an unoccupied vehicle on Yount Street in Yountville, leaving both cars with significant damage, and kept driving. Deputies found him a short time later. He admitted to hitting something but claimed he didn't know what, according to the Mercury News. Alcohol was ruled out. He was not arrested. The sheriff's office called that "typical for such misdemeanor offenses."
Typical — for who, exactly?
Meanwhile, in Denver the same week, police are actively hunting the driver of a silver SUV who hit a bicyclist at 15th and Wynkoop streets around 9:45 p.m. Thursday and fled the scene. The bicyclist suffered serious bodily injury, the Denver Post reported. Police released the vehicle description — possibly a 2004-2010 Nissan Armada or Infiniti QX56 — and asked the public to call Crime Stoppers with tips. That driver, once found, can expect handcuffs and a mug shot, not a spokesperson's statement.
The Pelosi family, for its part, wants you to know this is nobody's business. A family spokesperson said Pelosi "has personally apologized to the owner of the vehicle and assured them that he would take responsibility for the damage." Then came the tell: "Speaker Pelosi will not be commenting further on this private matter."
A hit-and-run on a public road is not a private matter. It is a crime. But when your name adorns the wine country and your wife ran the House of Representatives for two decades, the rules bend.
The sheriff's office said it will refer the case to the Napa County District Attorney's Office for review and prosecution and will submit a re-evaluation referral to the California DMV. Whether the DA pursues charges with any vigor against the Pelosi family is an open question — and exactly the kind of question that erodes public trust when the answer keeps coming back the same way.
This is the two-tiered system in plain view. One set of rules for the people who make the laws, another for the people who live under them. Pelosi drove away from a crash and got to issue an apology through a flack. An ordinary driver in Denver who did the same — and injured a person, not just a parked car — will get the full weight of the state coming down. The only question left is whether Napa County prosecutors will confirm what everyone already suspects.
