Jury Acquits West Covina Assemblyman Of DUI Charge

SACRAMENTO (AP) — A jury has acquitted Southern California Democratic Assemblyman Roger Hernandez on a drunken driving charge.

Hernandez's attorney, Peter Johnson, says a Contra Costa County jury found Hernandez not guilty of misdemeanor drunken driving on Monday. The jury could not reach a verdict on a second count of driving with a blood-alcohol level of at least .08, the minimum level for DUI.

Hernandez, of West Covina, has maintained that he was not drunk when police arrested him in late March in the eastern San Francisco Bay-area city of Concord.

During the trial, his attorney questioned the accuracy of the test, but Hernandez has called the test results "a huge wake-up call."

The Contra Costa County District Attorney could opt to retry Hernandez on the second count.

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