Nancy Pelosi's Drunk-Driving Husband Killed Own Brother in Car Crash
Paul Pelosi flipped sports car when he was 16 and 19-year-old brother died
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Nancy Pelosi's drunk-driving husband Paul lost control of his sports car when he was 16 and killed his own brother during the crash, according to reports.
Paul's 19-year-old brother David died in an early morning car wreck 65 years ago.
Paul Pelosi flipped his sports car over in February 1957 in Northern California when was just 16, a high school sophomore.
A newspaper report at the time said that Paul, from a wealthy elite family, would be cited for misdemeanor manslaughter.
In the end, there was no court case and he was exonerated by a coroner's jury.
According to a patrolman quoted by the San Francisco Examiner, his brother David had begged him to drive slower before the fatal smash.
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"This is a bad stretch – better slow down," David is said to have told his younger brother as he approached a tight curve near the Crystal Springs Dam on the Skyline Highway – now California State Route 35.
Paul, now 82, told Patrolman Thomas Ganley he tried to slow by shifting gears in the stick shift car but lost control.
"The car veered across the road, bounced back from a small embankment, climbed 20 feet up another, spun around and somersaulted simultaneously and ended upside down on the shoulder with both youths underneath," reported the Examiner.
The crash occurred at 2:40 am on February 22, 1957.
Paul had picked up his brother from a girlfriend's house in San Francisco and the siblings decided to go on a joyride rather than go straight home.
David Pelosi, a freshman at the College of San Mateo, was dead on arrival at the hospital.
The newspaper said David was probably strangled by a brace he wore to support a neck fracture he had sustained when he dived into shallow water in Lake Tahoe.
The San Mateo Times reported that Ganley and another patrolman Jack Rakestraw noted that David's brace was "lodged tightly against his neck."
"They jacked up the car to relieve the pressure but the youth apparently was already dead," the Times reported.
Paul broke his collarbone in the crash and was trapped under the car for a while. He managed to free himself and call for aid.
More recently he was cited twice in 2011, once for running a red light and once for veering over the center line while driving.
The fatal accident happened six years before Paul married Nancy D'Alesandro, the daughter of a former Baltimore mayor.
She took his last name and went on to be elected to Congress in 1987 and then became the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives.
As the owner of Financial Leasing Services, he has amassed a personal fortune of around $135 million, making his wife one of the richest members of Congress.
His sheer "luck" when it comes to predicting the stock markets sees him outperforming top traders on Wall St.
Some say he seems to have a crystal ball when it comes to predicting the outcome of legislation that impacts share values when it passes through Congress.
On Saturday Paul was driving his 2021 Porsche home from a dinner party while drunk when he pulled on to State Route 29 into the path of Jesus Lopez, 48, who was driving north in a Jeep.
Lopez was not arrested and neither man was injured.
Requests for comment both from Nancy Pelosi and her husband were not immediately returned.
Photos from the scene, obtained by ABC News, showed that the vehicles crashed into a wooden fence.
He was arrested for the incident at 10.22 pm on Saturday.
Bail was set at $5,000 and he was released Sunday morning.
In a statement on Monday, Paul Pelosi's lawyer said: "Mr. Pelosi was attending a dinner party at the home of friends near Oakville.
"He left that party at 10:15 pm Saturday, to drive to his home a short distance away.
"He was alone in his car.
"Mr. Pelosi was fully cooperative with California Highway Patrol officers who arrived a few minutes later."
His wife was in Rhode Island at the time, where she delivered the commencement address at Brown University. Paul Pelosi was alone in the car.
"The Speaker will not be commenting on this private matter which occurred while she was on the East Coast," her office said.
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Paul Pelosi's arrest report reveals he was driving eastbound on Walnut Lane, a quiet tree-lined street in Oakville, five miles south of the Pelosis' vineyard in St Helena, on Saturday.
He pulled out on to the highway to try to cross it, passing a stop sign.
He was struck at the crossing by Lopez, who traveling north in his Jeep on the state road.
Pelosi was found to have been over the legal blood alcohol limit.
He was booked on two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence and driving with a blood alcohol content level of 0.08% or higher.
The couple owns a vineyard in Napa, in addition to a home in nearby San Francisco.
Nancy Pelosi, 82, insists that she does not drink, according to previous statements given by her representatives, but the couple sells wine produced on their land.
The sprawling estate is one of many the couple owns.
