State Rep. Enrique Sanchez, shown during budget debates at the Rhode Island State House in 2024, was arrested and charged by Cranston Police with driving under the influence early on Monday. (Photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)
State Rep. Enrique Sanchez faces misdemeanor charges for drunk driving after being arrested by Cranston Police early Monday morning, according to police records obtained by Rhode Island Current.
Sanchez, a Providence Democrat, was arraigned in Kent County District Court Monday and released on his own recognizance, court records show. He was charged with driving under the influence and refusing to take a sobriety test.
Sanchez did not return calls for comment Tuesday.
The 28-year-old lawmaker first elected in 2022 was pulled over shortly before 3 a.m. Monday after police officers noticed he remained stopped at a traffic light on Reservoir Avenue, even after the light turned green. Sanchez “seemed confused,” when police stopped him, initially handing over a red debit card when asked for his license, Officer Chavelle Lopez wrote in the arrest report.
Lopez wrote that she could smell “a heavy odor of alcoholic beverage emanating from his breath” while Sanchez was speaking, also noting he had “bloodshot watery eyes.
A second officer, Austin Smith, can be heard telling Sanchez “you reek of booze” in body camera footage of the arrest.
Both Smith and Lopez repeatedly asked Sanchez if he had had anything to drink.
“You’re acting like you had something,” Smith tells Sanchez in the body camera footage.
Sanchez shook his head, saying he had not had anything to drink. However, he admitted to taking Adderall for his ADHD, which he later told police at the station impacts his mental health and his driving, according to the police report.
Sanchez tells officers in the video he was “trying to hop on the highway,” returning home to Providence from a friend’s house in Central Falls — a route which would not line up with where he was pulled over in Cranston, as Lopez tells him.
Lopez in her report also noted that Sanchez was unable to follow simple instructions, repeatedly tucking his hands into his pockets after she asked him not to. Eventually, she walks him back over to his car, instructing him to place his hands on the trunk while she pats him down.
After he refuses to take a field sobriety test, instead asking if he can call an Uber, Lopez handcuffs Sanchez and puts him in her patrol car.
Throughout the 24-minute video, it’s snowing, with slush coating the ground. Smith can be heard in the video remarking to another officer that it is “a terrible night” for driving and “you’re just sliding around.”
Back at the Cranston Police station, Sanchez “freely admitted” his use of medication for his ADHD, without additional prompting, Lopez wrote in the report. While in custody, he also admitted that he drank earlier that night, according to the report.
Sanchez also refused to take a breathalyzer test at the police station, at which point he was booked and held in police custody until his arraignment in court later that day, according to the report.
A pre-trial conference is scheduled for Feb. 24, according to court documents.
The Rhode Island House of Representatives is scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. Tuesday. House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi indicated he will be looking for an explanation from Sanchez.
“This is a serious charge that Representative Sanchez faces and I will let the legal process play itself out,” Shekarchi said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “At the appropriate time, he owes an explanation to his House colleagues, and most importantly, to his constituents.”
Sanchez was the only Democrat who did not vote to reelect Shekarchi as Speaker during the first day of the 2025 session. Sanchez, who represents Providence’s House District 9, is known for his progressive views and outspokenness, both in the State House and on social media.
He had a run-in with police in Providence in April 2023, where he was not arrested but captured on body camera footage for being at an illegal, after-hours “sip joint,” The Boston Globe reported.
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