recent arrest for suspicion of domestic battery<\/a> against a spouse. <\/p>\nIan Choudri was arrested Feb. 4 at his Folsom home in the 500 block of Borges Court.<\/p>\n
The authority said in a statement Tuesday that Choudri agreed to take a temporary leave to allow its board of directors and the California State Transportation Agency to review and assess the situation. <\/p>\n
Choudri\u2019s attorney said Monday that the Sacramento district attorney\u2019s office declined to file charges in the case. Police were called to Choudri\u2019s home by a third-party, Choudri\u2019s attorney told The Times. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis matter is over and no further action will be taken,\u201d said Allen Sawyer, who is representing Choudri. <\/p>\n
The Sacramento district attorney\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Choudri is among the highest-paid state employees in California, having earned $563,000 last year, according to payroll records obtained by The Times from the state controller\u2019s office. <\/p>\n
The High Speed Rail Authority did not answer a question about whether Choudri would receive pay during his absence. <\/p>\n
The board of directors is scheduled to meet next on March 4.<\/p>\n
The day before his arrest, Choudri had appeared with Gov. Gavin Newsom in Kern County to announce the completion of a 150-acre facility that would serve as a hub for construction of the high-speed rail project in San Joaquin Valley. <\/p>\n
California\u2019s grand vision for a bullet train, originally to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles, has become a flash point in national politics. <\/p>\n
President Donald Trump and Republicans have seized on the billions of dollars in cost overruns and slow progress to cast the project as a Democratic boondoggle and waste of taxpayer money. <\/p>\n
Newsom, eager to show some advancement before he leaves office, has refocused construction on building a segment from Merced to Bakersfield. His office said earlier this month that 119 miles were under construction and 58 structures, including bridges, overpasses, and viaducts, have been completed. <\/p>\n
The California High-Speed Rail Authority\u2019s Board of Directors approved Choudri as CEO in August 2024. Newsom praised the decision and commended his more than 30 years of experience in the transportation sector.<\/p>\n
Choudri replaced former CEO Brian Kelly, who retired. Choudri joined the agency from HNTB Corp., an infrastructure design firm where he previously held the position of senior vice president. <\/p>\n
Choudri did not respond to requests for comment. Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s office directed questions to the High Speed Rail Authority. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ian Choudri, CEO of the California High Speed Rail Authority, was arrested Feb. 4 at his home in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[237,1052,1581,7,9,8,8142,4019,85858,81317,86365,34569,1588,100,3290,346,10132],"class_list":{"0":"post-182432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-arrest","9":"tag-attorney","10":"tag-board","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-california-headlines","13":"tag-california-news","14":"tag-comment","15":"tag-construction","16":"tag-domestic-battery","17":"tag-high-speed-rail-authority","18":"tag-high-speed-rail-leader","19":"tag-ian-choudri","20":"tag-leave","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-newsom","23":"tag-office","24":"tag-suspicion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}