By Bay City News
Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer said today that she's in a wellness and recovery center to be treated for "chemical dependency and chronic pain" stemming from a past car accident as well as for injuries she said she suffered in an assault at a Newark motel on Feb. 3.
Lockyer, 40, who was elected to her post in November 2010 and is the wife of California state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, said in a statement, "Alcoholism and addiction are diseases from which many of us suffer, and unfortunately, I have not been spared."
She represents district two, which consists of Hayward, Newark and Union City and parts of Fremont and Sunol.
She said, "With the strong encouragement of the people in my life who love me, including my husband, my family, and my friends, I decided to get help and treatment so that I may fully heal and recover."
Referring to the Feb. 3 incident, Lockyer said, "The injuries I suffered from that assault will require some time to heal, and I am receiving treatment for them."
Lockyer said, "I will continue to do all I can to heal from the assault as well as to understand and conquer this disease so that I may be healthier and stronger for my family and my work."
Lockyer's chief of staff, Ruben Briones, said Lockyer missed board meetings last week and today and doesn't know when she will return to work.
She'll come back when she's healthy, he said.
Briones declined to disclose the location of the facility where Lockyer is being treated except to say it's somewhere in California.
Lockyer said a story in the San Francisco Chronicle that said she was violently assaulted by an ex-boyfriend when she met up with him at a Newark motel after she fought with her husband is "generally true."
The story said Nadia and Bill Lockyer had recently been separated but had gotten back together before the Feb. 3 incident.
A spokesman for Bill Lockyer, Tom Dresslar, said Lockyer doesn't want to comment on his wife's statement or the state of their marriage.
Alameda County District Attorney spokeswoman Teresa Drenick said her office is following up on the documents it's received from the Newark Police Department but she can't comment on the matter because there's still an open investigation.
Before she was elected to the Board of Supervisors, Lockyer was executive director of the Alameda County Family Justice Center, an agency in which the District Attorney's Office and other county departments work together to provide a variety of services to victims of domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse and sexual abuse and exploitation.
Lockyer says on her county website that she is the first Latina and the first woman of Native American heritage elected to the Board of Supervisors.
Board of Supervisors President Nathan Miley released a statement
today on behalf of the board.
"She is dealing with issues that are personal in nature, and we support her decision to seek help with those issues," the statement read. "We stand in support of our colleague and look forward to her return."
