An allegedly drunk motorcyclist who crashed last weekend on the Central Coast has been identified as a Seaside police officer who three weeks earlier had been convicted of a hit-and-run.
Alex Sakhrani, 43, and his passenger, an unnamed woman, were both hospitalized for serious injuries after he lost control of his Harley-Davidson around 7:45 p.m. Sunday in Grover Beach.
The case has been forwarded to the San Luis Obispo County district attorney for criminal charges of driving while under the influence of alcohol and causing bodily injury, the Grover Beach police said.
The crash occurred as Sakhrani crested a hill on Fourth Street approaching the Highway 101 interchange.
The Seaside Police Department confirmed to TV station KEYT that Sakhrani was one of their officers and was on paid leave at the time of the crash.
On Sept. 2, Sakhrani pleaded no contest and was convicted of an off-duty hit-and-run in April that had caused property damage, Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni announced.
He was sentenced to 10 days in jail and one year of probation. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the people whose vehicles and yard he had damaged and was prohibited from consuming alcohol during his yearlong probation.
In that crash, caught on security video, Sakhrani was leaving the bar at the Monterey Elks Lodge on April 12, 2021, when his Toyota Tundra veered over a curb, drove through a yard and hit a home’s retaining wall, the district attorney said. He also reportedly hit parked vehicles. He then left the scene.
The Monterey County Weekly reported that Sakhrani was a 16-year veteran of the Seaside force and had recently been the head of its police officers’ union but in February had been “stripped of his police powers, barred from entering the police station or any other city building not accessible to the public and placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.”
The Weekly cited an anonymous source as saying that investigation involved excessive force; the union’s lawyer denied that but declined to say what the case concerned.