Nevada State Sen. Edgar Flores, a 39-year-old Democrat representing Clark County, was arrested early Friday after police found him asleep behind the wheel of his running car at a red light and booked on a misdemeanor driving under the influence charge, authorities and his campaign said.
Body camera video released with police documents shows officers arriving at about 4 a.m. at the intersection of Lamb and Lake Mead boulevards in Las Vegas and finding Flores slumped over the steering wheel. Officers said they shone lights into the vehicle, knocked on the window and were ultimately able to wake Flores and remove him for questioning. Police described his speech and movements as slow and noted droopy eyes, delayed responses and confusion.
In the footage an officer says, “I’m going to try and open the door and put it in park. His hand is on the stick shift and it’s in drive.” When officers asked why he was asleep in his vehicle, Flores told them, “I’m sorry, because I had fallen asleep.” The officer then asked, “How much have you had to drink tonight? Be honest with me,” and Flores replied, “I had a drink. I’m sorry but I just fell asleep.” He told officers he had been playing soccer earlier, went to dinner with friends and had “one” beer, which he described as a 24-ounce container.
Police said Flores performed field sobriety exercises unsatisfactorily and refused a preliminary breath test, according to department documents. Flores and his campaign office issued a statement Monday saying he “voluntarily submitted to both a breathalyzer and blood test at the station” and was released on his own recognizance. The campaign statement added, “The Senator acknowledges he was tired,” and said the campaign was reviewing whether his rights and privacy were respected during the encounter.
Flores told officers he believed he registered a 0.00 blood-alcohol concentration on the breathalyzer, but authorities have not released the results of the station tests. Clark County prosecutors said they are awaiting blood-test results; those results could lead to the charge being dropped or altered before Flores’s scheduled court appearance in January.
Flores, who was first elected to the Nevada Assembly in 2014 and to the state Senate in November 2022, is an immigration attorney by training and a University of Nevada and William S. Boyd School of Law alumnus. He has said he plans to seek re-election in 2026.
The arrest adds to a list of high-profile incidents in which elected officials have been detained on suspicion of impaired driving. Authorities have not provided details of any pending investigation into possible drug involvement; one officer in the body camera footage indicated an intention to run Flores through additional tests because he was a state senator. Flores’s campaign said it respects officers’ diligence in ensuring public safety while it reviews the interaction.
The Clark County Detention Center processed Flores following the arrest. Prosecutors will decide how to proceed after the lab returns blood-test results, at which point charges may be maintained, reduced or dismissed under state law and local prosecutorial guidelines.