Prez issues statement on daughter’s DWI arrest

WINDOW ROCK

Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye Thursday issued a short statement in connection with reports that his daughter, Karis Begaye, was arrested for drunken driving after she collided with a semi-truck near Flagstaff Sunday night.

He said his daughter, a special assistant and general counsel in his office, had informed him that she had been arrested for causing damage to a highway guardrail. The statement also said that alcohol might have been involved.

Neither Karis Begaye nor the driver of the semi-truck was injured but the police report said she was charged with extreme DWI, which meant that her blood alcohol level was high or that she refused to take a breath alcohol test.

The president said his daughter apologized for her actions.

The statement did not include any mention of the fact that she had been in the Flagstaff area attending meetings on economic development nor that she was driving a tribal vehicle, which was reportedly severely damaged in the accident.

In his statement, President Begaye said the Navajo Nation is “plagued by alcohol” and “every family has been impacted.

“Therefore, this administration is declaring an unprecedented war on alcoholism,” the statement concluded.

Personnel policies state that employees of the tribe can be terminated for damaging a tribal vehicle while driving drunk.

However, Karis Begaye serves at the pleasure of the president and in the past any disciplinary action in these kinds of cases is left to the discretion of the president. He has so far made no public announcement of any disciplinary action against his daughter.

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