Riverside Schools Chief Arrested, Accused of DUI

The superintendent of the Riverside Unified School District was arrested this month on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, and has taken a 30-day sick leave to enroll in an alcohol-abuse-treatment program.

The California Highway Patrol reported that Susan J. Rainey, 58, was stopped and then arrested on the evening of Sept. 2 when officers conducted a sobriety checkpoint on the southbound 215 Freeway south of Newport Road near Menifee, said CHP Officer Brad Barksdale. The CHP did not release other details.

Rainey, in her seventh year as superintendent of the 42,000-student school district, drank wine while dining with neighbors that evening, and was driving to her vacation home in Oceanside when she was stopped, said Maxine Frost, a school district board member and friend of Rainey’s.

Rainey could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Frost said Rainey had enrolled in a treatment program. Frost said Rainey’s husband, Jack, died two years ago and that the superintendent had worked “at a fevered pace” since.

Punishment for first-time offenders can include six months in jail, a $1,000 fine, a 90-day driver’s license suspension and enrollment in an anti-drunk-driving program, a Riverside County district attorney’s spokeswoman said.

Frost said she did not expect the school board to ask for Rainey’s resignation.