SAN DIEGO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Kevin Fagan
Updated 11:04 p.m., Monday, August 27, 2012
The man set to become the next archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco was arrested Saturday in San Diego on suspicion of drunken driving as he was taking his elderly mother home after having dinner with friends.
Oakland Diocese Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, 56, was headed along San Diego State University’s southern edge when he encountered a sobriety checkpoint, said Officer Mark McCullough. Cordileone was amiable but appeared intoxicated and was arrested at 12:26 a.m., McCullough said.
The bishop was released from jail shortly before noon after posting $2,500 bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned on the misdemeanor charge on Oct. 9.
Cordileone issued a contrite statement Monday, saying he “was found to be over the California legal blood alcohol level.”
“I apologize for my error in judgment and feel shame for the disgrace I have brought upon the Church and myself,” the bishop said. “I will repay my debt to society and I ask forgiveness from my family and my friends and co-workers at the Diocese of Oakland and the Archdiocese of San Francisco.”
Visiting friends
Cordileone said he had been visiting friends with his 88-year-old mother and was driving her to her residence near the university after a meal together.
“I pray that God, in His inscrutable wisdom, will bring some good out of this,” he wrote.
The area where he was arrested has a large number of fraternity and sorority houses, and police routinely run checkpoints on weekends. McCullough said 10 others were arrested at the same checkpoint that night.
“He was very calm, somewhat apologetic at the time,” said the officer, who ran the checkpoint that morning. “He said he’d been drinking. But he wasn’t a stumbling, falling-down drunk.”
The archbishop-designee’s driving record is clean except for one ticket he got on Dec. 23 for failure to stop at a stop sign, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. If convicted of this latest offense, he could be sentenced to three years’ probation, a fine of $1,800, two days in jail and sobriety counseling.
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