Concord Vice-Mayor Laura Hoffmeister was found guilty this morning of one count of driving under the influence of alcohol, according to the Superior Court of California.
Hoffmeister was sentenced to two days in county jail, three years of probation, and must complete a three month DUI licensed program. She also has to pay a fine of almost $2,000.
Hoffmeister was originally facing two misdemeanors and two enhancements for her May DUI arrest in Clayton, according to the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office.
She faced misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, and driving under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol content of at least .08.
She was also being charged with allegedly violating vehicle code 23578, which, according to the Shouse California Law Group, is described as the California statute that allows a court to impose enhanced penalties in DUI cases involving an excessive blood alcohol content or a chemical test refusal.
Both the District Attorney’s Office and the Clayton Police say they will not release information on what Hoffmeister’s blood alcohol content was at the time of her arrest.
Hoffmeister, who recently resigned from her day job as the Assistant to the City Manager in Clayton, was arrested on May 26 for DUI after being pulled over by Clayton Police for driving on the wrong side of the road on Pine Hollow Road.
45 comments
She needs to resign from the City Council.
There is no excuse for her to remain a representative of the people.
+1
Thank You Clayton PD, for your vigilance.
Hey what happened to the $13,500 in fines and courts costs law enforcement always counts about if you get a DUI? Sounds like she got a slight slap in the wrist instead..gee I wonder why.
She must have been really lit. Is she actually going to jail for two days?
How she has the gall and audacity not to resign from the Council is staggering, and then to run again is even more incredible. She apparently has no pride or feeling of shame that she has brought to the cities of Clayton and Concord.
Great job Laura! Way to represent the people of Concord and Clayton! Cheers to your arrest…I’ll buy you a beer next time I’m in town! 🍻
She doesn’t deserve redemption, then?
She got better than redemption! She got a deal where we will never know how plastered she was behind the wheel and this story goes away and she can continue being in government! She’s friends with all the right people. Look to see who endorses her now! $1,000,000 says Concord voters re-elect her! If she is re-elected watch how fast the city of Clayton brings her back as a “consultant” at taxpayer expense.
That’s now called “The Pelosi Deal”
Does she have endorsements? I think the dems switched to Quinne Anderson.
@LocalAntiLib if it were or me, we would be fined $13,500, lose our license raise our insurance rates etc.
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I grew up with Laura. I won’t condone what she did, but I wish her well. We ran in different social circles, but I will always remember her as a very smart student and a good volleyball player in high school.
We don’t live in Concord or Clayton, but I understand the concerns of those who do. She’s a public figure.
Take care Laura.
I remember when public servants were held to a higher standard.
Being smart and being a “good” volleyball player means nothing. Her actions speak volumes.
If I was the driver, I would have had my life ruined since I am not connected – she deserves the same
She is most likely to serve Her time on home detention. They call it jail now. At least when She was arrested She owned it and appeared to have a retentive heart for what She had done. So then what’s so wrong about Her continuing to serve the public? Are We the people so far above Her that We don’t give or believe in 2nd chances? I would rather be served from .someone’s scars then from their successes. You all remind Me of the religious leaders when Christ walked this earth. Pharisees they were called. Who among Us has not errored in Our better judgement? So lets just put the stones down and take a step back. and reflect on what’s really going on here shall We?
Elected officials should expect public scrutiny. Drunk driving is no small error in judgment.
Laura Hoffmeister could have killed someone.
Reminder that, in 2019, approximately 28% of all traffic fatalities were due to alcohol related impaired driving. This has been lowered recently due to the availability of ride share services. As an elected official, the councilmember should be expected to be fully aware of this and have at least the minimal judgment of using a ride share when intoxicated (especially since she says we will all be expected not to use our cars in the future).
I don’t wish this upon anyone, but she was charged with an enhanced penalty of ‘an excessive blood alcohol content or a chemical test refusal’…
She drove on the wrong side of the road at night, inebriated level unknown, lest not forget– she could’ve killed your loved one(s) in a head on collision, leaving scars on your family forever! I don’t call that a success with those around her enabling this behavior.
@ Kentucky Derby. Like your post.
Is this not having a criminal record now?
She needs to resign from city council.
Why should she resign, the Mayor of Antioch has not resigned.
Firestone 11R
The Mayor of Antioch should resign too.
Wrong Way Laura needs to resign from the city of Concord also, but probably won’t. How she could run for re-election is beyond me.
Yeah, some garbage detail might be in her immediate future.
Being critical of any public figure is fair game when it comes to politics and policy. What we have with these posts, with one exception, is a lack of humanity. She made an egregious error and has paid for it with her job and her reputation. We all have an opportunity to vote for or against her. Whatever I do in the ballot booth, I wish her the best with her health and her well being.
Pay your fine and get back to work. This is what we have judges for. In this case the judge found an appropriate fine to make Laura good with society. When she is paid up, she will be at equal debt to society as the rest of us
A convicted drunk driver is a criminal. I see nothing about rehab, AAA being completed. Shouldn’t there be an ethics requirement for office?
Ethics? For politicians?
There should be – but they’ll never go for it. Even if the voters pushed for it, they’d still ignore the will of the voters.
My grandfather David worked with Laura multiple times to create community events here around concord. Laura is a great woman and has been dedicated to concord for many years. Yes this news is unfortunate but being hateful, or disarming her with an opportunity to recover from this isn’t right. If this were you a good person that made a mistake, I don’t think you’d want to be stripped of all of the good you’ve done. I see humans but no humanity, there may have been a bigger issue here she was struggling with. Have compassion not hate.
She crossed a very important line when she refuse to take the alcohol test. Hard to have a lot of compassion for a public official who doesn’t co-operate with local authorities.
I don’t think we want to return to the “good ol’ days” when the police might look the other way. Ever since MADD changed the game, the
easy out is over. She should have called for a ride and picked up her car the following morning. No hate here.
@Duwana
You apparently don’t know the definition of the word “hate”.
what a drunk moron the wrong side of the road??
Not enough.
Justice has been served. Laura Hoffmeister now has her own sense of duty to rely on to decide what the best course for her to follow for us is, the citizens of Concord. She should resign from the Concord City Council. But Will She?
Wow….can’t believe the posting from almost everyone…..
Laura knows the history of Concord and dedicated her life to the City…
I didn’t realize so many “perfect” people reside in Concord….she made a mistake and has corrected it…she got in front of it…so cut her some slack….
Cast the first stone if you are so perfect….get real!
There’s no “hate.”
The fact is that these “leaders” are held to a higher standard and should be setting an example.
She failed.
@Siobhan O
I don’t believe it’s about people believing they’re “perfect”, but rather the unfairness of it all. A spokesperson for the CC DA said that she was over twice the legal limit and the report above says that was dismissed, so something is off right there.
Seems kind of fast to have already hit the Court room and get a verdict. This happened after Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe’s DUI arrest.
Thorpe plead not guilty, Hoffmeister took a plea deal.
She may be “nice” and “great” but she has a problem and it should not be swept under the rug. A lot of nice, great people have been killed by drunk drivers. Her “mistake” could’ve cost an innocent person their life. I hope she can get the help she needs but she should not be representing Concord. The mayor of Antioch should step down also.
Siobhan O – Yes, I guess I am “perfect” because I never chose to get in my car after drinking and drive. How do you know she has “corrected” anything? This has gone on for years and Concord cops gave her a pass and a ride home so she never had to answer for her drinking. It finally caught up with her.
Another slap on the wrist for a drunk politician. I love the drunks that think having dinner with friends is an excuse to threaten everyone’s life on the road. Friends in HIGH places.
CPD couldn’t arrest her because the bosses on duty when she dui crashed her car into a parked car didn’t have the stones to allow their cops to do the right thing.
I worked in the CCC Courts for 34 years. Here is the thing…She received the standard 1st time DUI sentence that is handed out every day in the CCC Courts. She will be on 3 years of DUI probation. The 2 days will be spent picking up trash in an orange vest just like all the other misdemeanor 1st-time DUI defendants. She must attend the same DUI class that all DUI defendants must attend. The total of all the various fines is $1961, the same fines all other 1st-time DUI defendants get. This figure of $10K-13K for a DUI is an estimate of what someone would pay in total for fines, attorney fees and increased insurance rates over time. Between attorney fees and insurance increases; that figure is probably about right for her situation.
Laura did not get a slap on the wrist; she got the same sentence any of us would get for a typical 1st-time DUI conviction where no accident is involved and/or the person is not driving over 100mph (in those instances, the jail time would be more…)
What is interesting is that recently re-elected DA Becton will give a much better deal on DUIs to one category of people….Illegal immigrants. That’s right; DA Becton has ordered her Deputy DAs to give much reduced charges, fines, and jail time to DUI defendants if there might be an immigration consequence to a DUI conviction.
Laura went over the line of acceptance, or forgiveness with her over the limit alcohol level, her refusal to take a blood test, and most of all, her being so drunk that she was driving the wrong way on a residential street. Laura was part of a tense City meeting the night of her arrest on what items would be expected for Seeno to move forward. The CNWP fight for building, who, where, how much. The people corrupt from the beginning, that have either been re-elected to City Council, voted to other levels of politics, or been murdered/suicide. I have seen many of these people after meetings, meeting elsewhere to dine and overdrink. What deals and agreements have been made under these conditions? Laura should resign, same as any Council member caught doing any underhanded illegal, deals, that are brought to publics’ attention, and forgiven. This is future and has been the acceptable norm for all politicians. RESIGN Laura.
Stop with excuses. If a drunk surgeon was at work they’d lose everything. Stop using ‘nice’ and ‘dedicated’ as an excuse. She screwed up. She’s a politician. There are consequences. It could have been far worse. Dead people would be far worse. It’s stupid to drive under the influence. It’s stupid to defend it. She got her judgement and now has to live with it. That’s the story. Maybe she will learn from it and make a better ending. Or maybe not. Either way, it’s not about hate. It’s about RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY, both sadly lacking these days.
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