A state traffic court judge on Wednesday suspended the license of a Providence state legislator charged with driving while intoxicated earlier this month but granted him the ability to travel to and from work.
Rep. Enrique Sanchez, a Providence Democrat, pleaded not guilty to civil citations of refusing a chemical test and failure to obey traffic control devices in his initial appearance before Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal Judge William T. Noonan.
The 28-year-old lawmaker can still operate his car, just between the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to travel to the State House and his day job at his family’s Mexican food market on Atwells Avenue, under a conditional hardship license approved by Noonan.
A hardship license allows drivers who have their license suspended over a DUI or refusal to submit to a chemical test to continue to drive during a court-approved 12-hour period for purposes of employment, medical appointments, job training, schooling, or religious observance. The hardship license is granted in tandem with an ignition locking device installed in a defendant’s vehicle, preventing the engine from starting until the driver submits to a breathalyzer.
Court records show the system was installed in Sanchez’s car on Tuesday.
“Nothing unusual happened today,” Sanchez’s attorney, Democratic State Rep. John J. Lombardi of Providence, said in a phone interview. “He’s got what everyone else would be afforded — a way to get back and forth to work.”
Lombardi declined further comment on the traffic court violations or a misdemeanor DUI charge Sanchez faces in Kent County District Court.
Noonan ordered Sanchez’s license to remain suspended “until final adjudication of this matter.”
Sanchez, who was first elected to represent House District 9 in 2022, was arrested by Cranston Police on Feb. 3 after an officer spotted him behind the wheel of a 2017 Nissan Altima stopped at a green light on Reservoir Avenue at 3 a.m. Officers noticed a “strong odor of alcohol” coming from Sanchez, who allegedly had “bloodshot watery eyes,” according to his arrest report.
Sanchez initially denied that he’d been drinking, instead telling police he took Adderall for his ADHD, which he said impacts his mental health and his driving. He “admitted that he did drink” once in custody, according to his arrest report.
The second-term lawmaker pleaded not guilty in Kent County Court on Feb. 3 to a charge of driving under the influence of liquor and was released on $1,000 personal recognizance. A pre-trial conference in his case is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 24, according to online court records.
Sanchez is known as one of the more outspoken members of the General Assembly but was completely silent in the week following his arrest. The lawmaker did not attend a House session on Feb. 4 and did not post on his X account.
That silence was broken on Feb. 10, when Sanchez posted a thread on X where he promised he would not let his arrest interfere with his obligations to his constituents.
“This experience has given me a renewed clarity about my responsibilities — not just in this chamber, but in the trust my community has placed in me,” he wrote. “I take that trust seriously and will continue to work hard every day of my life.”
Sanchez did not speak to reporters after leaving the Traffic Tribunal with his attorney on Wednesday morning.
“My actions could have been better,” he told WPRI-12 on Feb. 11, the same day he returned to the State House for the first time since his arrest. “I definitely had to be more aware of my surroundings.”
This article was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
