Texas State Rep Naomi Gonzalez
Texas State Rep. Naomi Gonzalez, D-El Paso (AP file photo)

AUSTIN -- Two women who were in a car that was rear-ended by state Rep. Naomi Gonzalez said the El Paso lawmaker should not be allowed to keep her job in light of allegations that she caused the crash while driving drunk.

Chloe Stagner and Shane Pedraza, both 21, said they have yet to receive an apology from Gonzalez, who last week slammed her BMW into the Fiat the two women were in, causing the Fiat to hit a cyclist. They started an online petition Wednesday night calling on Gonzalez to step down as District 76 representative. The district covers the Lower Valley and parts of East and Central El Paso.

"I'm not from her district, but I am a Texan and I am a Texas voter," Stagner, a Houston resident, said in an interview with the El Paso Times. "If it was my representative that hit me and then didn't bother to even apologize to me on the night or reach out to me in any way, I would assume that that person doesn't care about me at all. And, if that person is a representative, I would assume that they don't care about the people that they represent if they don't care about the people that they've injured."

Stagner and Pedraza were in Austin last week attending the SXSW music and film festival. Stagner said she and her friends were headed to get some rest about 2 a.m. after attending several concerts when Gonzalez crashed into the Fiat she had rented. The impact caused the Fiat to hit a woman on a bicycle. The bicyclist was identified as Lindsey Nicole Weiler.

Gonzalez, Weiler and Thomas Bates, a second passenger in the Fiat, were taken to hospitals. They did not suffer serious injuries, according to police.

Neither Weiler nor Bates could be reached for comment.

Gonzalez declined to comment.

Her lawyer, Brian Roark, said it is not appropriate for a person who is involved in a case to have direct contact with witnesses in the case, even if politics call for such communication.

"It's unfortunate that most times the legal system doesn't go as fast and make as fast and as quick conclusions about what has happened as the political system does," Roark said.

"In a perfect world, you could have those communications where she can express what she feels and she's already done that a little bit publicly actually, but it's just never a situation where, legally speaking, she or anyone else in her position should have direct contact with anyone else who is a witness in the case."

The El Paso lawmaker on Monday offered a public apology on the floor of the Texas House. Her comments were met with applause from her colleagues, many of whom rose to their feet. Flowers were also placed on her desk.

News from the state capitol.

"I made a mistake and I am deeply, deeply sorry for it," Gonzalez said to the House chamber. "I am sorry for the shame that I brought upon this House and I have brought upon the district."

Stagner said a friend who was following the speech on Twitter sent her a photo that had been taken. Stagner said that when she read about Gonzalez's comments, she was bothered that the lawmaker "had the audacity to speak and apologize to the House floor but not to any of us."

"I was actually pretty upset because I was reading that there was applause and a standing ovation and I was like, 'Why are people applauding her for driving drunk?'," Stag ner said. "Where are my applause for driving sober and being between her and potentially killing a cyclist?"

Pedraza said she shared Stagner's disappointment when she read of the treatment of Gonzalez by her colleagues.

"When I first read the article saying that, I texted Chloe and said, 'Is this real? Did this really happen? Are people supporting this?" said Pedraza, who lives in Albuquerque. "I almost felt like it was Gonzalez turning herself into a victim."

An arrest affidavit said Gonzalez failed a breath test with a blood alcohol content of 0.164, which is twice the legal limit. In the affidavit, an officer who interviewed Gonzalez on March 14 at the hospital said she never asked about the other people involved in the accident but "cried about how she had worked so hard to get where she was."

Roark said the affidavit does not offer solid proof that Gonzalez had not expressed concern for the others involved in the car crash.

The police officer "wasn't with her when she was being transported to the hospital or anything like that so all he was really commenting on was his short time with her, which would not accurately reflect how she really felt and what she had been asking about," Roark said.

Gonzalez told the El Paso Times on Monday that those who know her know that she was worried about the others involved in the accident.

"That does weigh very heavily on me and I keep them in my thoughts and in my prayers," Gonzalez said. "I am very sorry about that and very grateful that no one was seriously injured."

Stagner said that if Gonzalez were concerned about the people she crashed into, she would have expressed concern for them to the police officer and would have tried to contact them.

"From what I've read, she didn't ask about how we were doing, how my other passenger was doing or how the cyclist was doing.

"Instead, she cried about her career," Stagner said. "I think that shows a lot of the wrong things you look for in someone who represents people. You don't want them to care more about their career than people if their career is caring about people and ensuring their well-being."

Though Gonzalez is already facing many political challenges, a legal resolution appears to be months away. Roark pointed to reports that the Austin Police Department's blood lab is running about six months behind in obtaining results for DWI cases.

Officers took a blood sample from Gonzalez after the accident.

"No one is really in a position to make any decision about the case or even really be able to evaluate it very well without, at a bare minimum, having that information," Roark said. "Without having all the facts in the case, I could never advise her what her options were adequately, and no one could. Right now, both sides quite frankly are still gathering information."

Roark said the portable breath test that police had Gonzalez take is not admissible in court because it is not reliable.

"I've seen great variation between those and what either the admissible breath tests or blood tests come back as," Roark said. "It doesn't provide usable evidence. It's really just speculation more than anything else."

The arrest affidavit said Gonzalez told officers that she was driving home from the Capitol, where she had left her car. According to the affidavit, Gonzalez said she had been at the W Hotel earlier that night and had two drinks -- a Bud Light and an "Old Fashioned" -- between midnight and 1 a.m. on March 14.

An accident report says Gonzalez was driving south over the Congress Avenue bridge at 1:56 a.m. when she struck the Fiat that Stagner was driving.

Pedraza said the accident has affected not just Gonzalez, but all of those involved. Pedraza said that while Stagner was not at fault, she is always going to have to deal with the thought that she was driving a car that hit a cyclist.

"That is so unfair that she has to be burdened with that kind of idea for the rest of her life," Pedraza said. "It shouldn't have ever happened, and she is forever going to remember that and that bothers me. "

Stagner said that right after the accident, she had to keep reminding herself that there was nothing she could do to avoid hitting the cyclist.

"It wasn't my fault that I hit her," Stagner said. "I swerved as much as I could. I have to actually remind myself that I'm the reason she didn't get hit going like 50 miles an hour by a drunk driver. That there is a reason that she is for the most part alright now because I was behind her and my car took the impact."

Both Stagner and Pedraza said they did not speak to Gonzalez after the accident and were not aware that she was a state lawmaker until they started reading news reports. They said they knew that a festival, which draws thousands of people to Austin each year, would not be incident-free, but they did not anticipate that a state lawmaker would crash into them and be charged with driving while intoxicated.

"We're both 21," Stagner said. "We're told almost every day, 'Don't drink and drive.' We see billboards for it everyday. We actually go to places and make the smart decision not to drink and drive and to be sober and have fun. Then you get hit by a drunk driver who turns out to be a representative. That's ironic to say the least -- that the two of us who were there to party were hit by the one who was there to work."
