College of the Desert Trustee Rubén Pérez pleads guilty to DUI, gets work release

Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated what prosecutors objected to.

College of the Desert Board Trustee Rubén Pérez has pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol early last year.

Judge Michael M. Dest sentenced him to four days in custody, but gave him credit for two days and allowed the remaining two to be served through the Riverside County sheriff's work release program .

Pérez was arrested around 12:49 a.m. on Feb. 10, 2023 near the SilverRock Resort in La Quinta. He was booked at the John Benoit Detention Center in Indio at 3 a.m. that day and later released on $3,500 bail.

Over a year later, in May 2024, he pleaded guilty to two counts of driving under the influence, court records show. As part of the plea, he admitted his blood alcohol content was at least .20%, which is more than twice the legal limit of .08%.

Pérez could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday, but he previously apologized in a statement after his arrest. "A few weeks ago I made a terrible mistake of which I am truly sorry," Pérez told The Desert Sun in March 2023 . "I'd like to sincerely apologize to my family, friends and community. I will do everything in my power to learn and grow from this."

More: COD Trustee Ruben Perez arrested in February on suspicion of drunk driving

Pérez will serve 36 months of summary probation, according to Riverside County Superior Court documents. This type of informal probation for misdemeanors generally does not require meetings with a probation officer.

A spokesperson for the Riverside County District Attorney's Office said the prosecutor in the case objected to the sentence the judge imposed.

The court's sentence also included four days in custody, but Pérez received credit for one actual day and one day under Penal Code 4019, the state law that governs how days are deducted from jail sentences. That left Pérez with two days, which he had to serve through a work release program by June 14, court documents state. The Riverside County Sheriff's Office has not yet confirmed whether the work release has been served.

Pérez must also meet additional conditions, including paying a $1,703 fine and completing a nine-month first offender DUI program, which he was ordered to report to by June 14 and complete by July 18, 2025, the district attorney's office confirmed.

Pérez, the son of Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Pérez, is serving his second term as a COD board trustee. He was re-elected in November 2022 .

In February, he was issued a warning by his fellow board members for improperly using a classroom appearance to campaign for his re-election and for making disrespectful comments about another trustee, which caused division within the board. A board subcommittee appointed to investigate these complaints hired an outside attorney to investigate.

More: COD investigation finds Trustee Rubén Pérez violated ethics rules; board issues warning

The board's chair, Bonnie Stefan, said the subcommittee, consisting of herself and Ron Oden, said no further action beyond the warning was warranted.

“We believe a warning is more conducive to Trustee Pérez learning from his prior missteps,” she said in February. “A reprimand or censure implies punishment, which we did not feel was necessary here.”

Previous reporting by Jonathan Horwitz was used in this report. Jennifer Cortez covers education in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at jennifer.cortez@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: College of the Desert Trustee Rubén Pérez pleads guilty to DUI, gets work release