Former Tribal Official Pleads Out In DUI Collision With Train

LOS ANGELES, CA—After crashing into a train in Santa Monica, California in the spring of 2018, former Mashantucket Pequot tribal official Anthony ‘Antonio’ Manuel Beltran Sr., now 55, sat in jail for more than a year until a week ago when he pleaded no contest in a Los Angeles courtroom to a charge of drunk driving, prosecutors said in a statement.

Beltran, previously of Waterford, who was at the time of the crash the Tribe’s chief of staff, and who oversaw operations including police and fire, had his two 16-year-old sons in the car when he collided with a Metro train in Santa Monica on April 18, 2018, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.

Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Megee said Beltran entered the plea to one felony count of driving under the influence of an alcoholic beverage causing injury and admitted causing great bodily injury.

When he copped the plea, Beltran was “immediately sentenced to 469 days already served in jail, five years of formal probation, nine months of alcohol classes and one year of parenting classes.”

The case was investigated by the Santa Monica Police Department.

Beltran drove with his two sons through a red light near Lincoln Boulevard and Colorado Avenue and his vehicle was struck by the train, court records show. Beltran and his boys, both 16 at the time, had been drinking. All three were injured, with one of the sons sustaining a serious head injury, prosecutors said. Beltran’s blood alcohol content was .27 percent, or three times the legal limit.

His crash into the train had the jaws-of-life used to rescue his sons, one person on the train was hurt, and rail service was shut down for hours

A report at the time described the early morning hours crash in chilling detail.

It was 12:30 a.m. when Santa Monica fire and rescue were called to the scene of the collision of Beltran’s SUV and the Santa Monica Expo Line Light Rail Train. It took 26 firefighters, including the Santa Monica Fire Department’s Urban Search & Rescue unit, to respond and, using the jaws-of-life, extricate the father and his two sons, and “assist in the stabilization and evacuation of the train.”

One person on the train was injured. The train sustained damage and rail service was suspended for hours. Beltran and his boys were rushed by SMFD Paramedics to UCLA Trauma Center in Westwood in serious condition. One son sustained a critical head injury.

A longtime Tribal leader, Beltran also has a lengthy criminal history

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribe owns Foxwoods Resort Casino. As then-chief of staff, Beltran oversaw operations for “tribal police, fire and emergency services, public affairs, utilities, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, non-gaming regulatory affairs, public works and tribal member services,” The Day reported.

After he was arrested, he was placed on leave without pay and eventually removed him from his position, The Day reported at the time.

A Tribal Council member from 1997 until 2000, Beltran had nonetheless a long criminal history dating back to when at age 17 in 1980, was imprisoned for stabbing, and paralyzing, another teen in California.

He served four years in San Quentin. After his release, he was charged with assaulting a person in a bar, also in California.

In 1999, while serving as a Tribal Council member, Beltran was involved in two accidents where he was charged with leaving the scene. In 2000, Beltran was charged with driving under the influence in Norwich.