Paul Pelosi, 86, was involved in a hit-and-run in Yountville on Friday after striking a legally parked car, briefly stopping and then driving away. The Napa County Sheriff’s Office said deputies later found him roughly a quarter of a mile away with damage to the front of his brown convertible.
No injuries were reported, but the car he hit had major damage, the sheriff’s office said. A witness saw the collision and called 911, setting off the chain of events that ended with deputies locating Pelosi nearby and reviewing what happened on the road in Wine Country.
By Saturday, the case had moved beyond the crash itself. The sheriff’s office referred Pelosi to the Department of Motor Vehicles for a process to determine whether he may continue to drive and recommended a misdemeanor charge for fleeing the scene of an accident. That step matters because it can affect both his license status and whether prosecutors take up the case.
Pelosi reportedly told officers he knew he hit something but was not sure when or what caused the damage, even though deputies found the front of his car damaged shortly afterward. That detail leaves the central question unresolved: he did not deny contact, but he also did not give a clear account of why he left the scene.
The incident lands against the backdrop of Pelosi’s 2022 misdemeanor DUI conviction in Napa County, when he pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five days in jail and three years of probation, and served only two days with credit for two more. He was also ordered to complete a three-month drinking driver class, install an ignition interlock device, pay about $5,000 in victim restitution and nearly $2,000 in fines. He was attacked and severely beaten with a hammer at the couple’s San Francisco home in 2022.
For now, the crash is likely to be judged less by what happened in the brief moments after impact than by what comes next: whether the DMV reviews his driving, and whether the misdemeanor recommendation becomes a filing. The sheriff’s office said Pelosi did not have alcohol in his system, but the record now carries a second traffic case that will follow him well beyond Friday’s drive through Yountville.
