A woman pleaded guilty Thursday to charges stemming from her role in seriously injuring an El Cajon police officer dragged about 200 yards by an SUV.
Keani Flores, 30, is set to be sentenced in December for assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and other counts.
Officer Nicholas Cirello’s injuries occurred while investigating an SUV parked in a resident’s driveway on Dec. 14, 2020. Flores and co-defendant David Pangilinan, 43, were asleep inside.
Pangilinan was charged with speeding away as Cirello spoke to him, while prosecutors say Flores pried the officer’s hands from the SUV’s windowsill as it was moving, causing him to fall from the vehicle along West Washington Avenue.
He suffered a traumatic brain injury and broken bones, which left him hospitalized for nearly a week.
Flores was arrested about a week later in the Madera County. Pangilinan was at large for nearly a month until he was arrested in Los Angeles.
Pangilinan also pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and was sentenced in August to nearly nine years in state prison.
– City News Service