Courtesy photo: Simi Valley Police Department

Emergency personnel work on scene of a single vehicle accident on Royal Avenue on Tuesday night. Off-duty Beverly Hills police officer, Jeffrey Sweet, 42, was arrested Tuesday night after crashing into a Simi Valley home while allegedly driving under the influence, officials said. Sweet was arrested and booked in jail on suspicion of DUI, police said.

Jeffrey Sweet in his mug shot after the arrest.

Beverly Hills, LA, California – An off-duty Beverly Hills police officer, Jeffrey Sweet, was taken to jail after being caught driving under the influence of alcohol last week after crashing his car into a home located in Simi Valley, according to the officials. Sweet, a Simi Valley resident, was driving a personal vehicle about 10:20 p.m. East on Royal Avenue when he lost control and failed to negotiate a curve at the Blackstock Avenue, the police reported.

“Sweet’s blood-alcohol level during the crash will be determined by lab tests,” said Sgt. Craig Dungan in a statement, who is a spokesman for Simi Valley police.

According to reports, the vehicle collapsed on to a house, knocked down a utility pole and came to a halt on its roof on the retaining wall of a second home, police said.

Two homes were evacuated because the vehicle severed a natural gas line, police said. Ventura County Fire Department crews closed the gas line, preventing a possible fire, police said.

Royal Avenue between Sequoia and Blackstock avenues was closed through Wednesday morning as Southern California Edison repaired the damaged utility pole.

Fortunately no one was injured, the police reported.

The bystanders in the vicinity helped Sweet get out of the vehicle, police said. He did not appear to be injured but was taken to Simi Valley Hospital after complaining of pain, police said.

The forty two year old was imprisoned and booked into jail on suspicion of drunk driving, the Simi Valley police said. He was booked into Ventura County jail and later released.

Sweet is an 18-year veteran of the Beverly Hills force, said Lt. Lincoln Hoshino, a spokesman for the agency. The officer will not be put on leave, pending a DUI investigation and subsequent administrative inquiry, Hoshino said.

Jean Donato, 64, was in her bedroom with her sister and dog when the vehicle crashed into her home.

“I was laying there watching TV and I heard the bang,” Donato said. “I started to get up, and my bed moved and the dog went flying. I couldn’t see anything. It was all dust.” According to reports, Donato’s side lawn was full of debris Wednesday morning.

She said Simi Valley building and safety officials were assessing the damage to her home to determine whether it was livable. She said she is grateful that she and the driver survived.

“He wasn’t killed, thank God,” Donato said.

The Beverly Hills Police Department Professional Standards Unit responded to the scene with the collaboration of the Simi Valley police. They will also jointly collaborate and to investigate the case further and assess the damages.

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, to be installed in October as archbishop of San Francisco, was arrested in San Diego early Aug. 26 for driving under the influence.

OAKLAND, Calif. (CNS) – According to reports, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, who will be installed as archbishop of San Francisco on the fourth of next month, was arrested on Aug. 25 on suspicion of drunk driving after being stopped at a sobriety checkpoint.

The archbishop, a San Diego native, had his mother in the car. According to the archbishop’s statement, he was driving his mother to her home after dinner at the home of some friends, “along with a priest friend visiting from outside the country.”

“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,” he added. “I pray that God, in his inscrutable wisdom, will bring some good out of this.”

In a statement issued from the Diocese of Oaklandon Aug. 27, which Archbishop Cordileone has led for the past three years, the prelate apologized “for my error in judgment” and said he felt “shame for the disgrace I have brought upon the church and myself.”

According to a press release, the Archbishop confessed in a statement that he was found to be driving over California’s legal blood alcohol level, which is 0.08 percent.

According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the only other traffic infraction committed by the archbishop was for failure to stop at a stop sign two days before Christmas last year.

Mark McCullough, the police officer making the arrest, told the Chronicle that Archbishop Cordileone appeared intoxicated but was amiable.

“He was very calm, somewhat apologetic at the time,” McCullough said to the press. “He said he’d been drinking. But he wasn’t a stumbling, falling-down drunk.”

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Archbishop Cordileone spent the night in jail, and was released shortly before noon once he posted a $2,500 bond.

He is scheduled to be arraigned on the misdemeanor charge Oct. 9 – five days after his scheduled installation as San Francisco’s archbishop.

If convicted, Archbishop Cordileone faces penalties of up to three years of probation, two days in jail, an $1,800 fine and sobriety counseling.

Archbishop Cordileone is a chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage. In addition, he was a leader in the movement that spurred California voters to ban same-sex marriage at the polls – along with a member of the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance. He has served on the bishops’ Task Force on Cultural Diversity and currently is on the Religious Liberty Committee of the California Catholic Conference.