{"id":207074,"date":"2026-03-06T08:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207074\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T08:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:30:08","slug":"ceo-of-california-high-speed-rail-cleared-to-return-to-work-after-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207074\/","title":{"rendered":"CEO of California High-Speed Rail cleared to return to work after arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The head of the California High-Speed Rail Authority <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/california\/article\/high-speed-rail-ceo-arrest-21357533.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:has been cleared;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">has been cleared<\/a> to return to work, members of the board of directors said following a closed session meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">CEO Ian Choudri, 57, was arrested in Folsom last month on suspicion of domestic battery following a disturbance call to his home. The Sacramento district attorney declined to file criminal charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Few additional details have been released to the public, and the Feb. 4 arrest does not appear in Folsom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.folsom.ca.us\/home\/showpublisheddocument\/23818\/639058950168000000\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:police logs;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">police logs<\/a>. Even so, Choudri was placed on administrative leave after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/article\/california-high-speed-rail-authority-ceo-ian-choudri-arrested-for-domestic-violence-folsom\/70386560\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:KCRA;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">KCRA<\/a> and other news outlets &#8211; including the Chronicle &#8212; reported the incident on Feb. 16.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Allen Sawyer, the criminal defense attorney Choudri hired to handle the matter, said he recommended his client keep it under wraps, despite Choudri&#8217;s wish to disclose the situation to colleagues &#8220;immediately.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Looking back, Sawyer said he realized his advice may have been &#8220;misguided.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Based on the information available to me at the time, I believed he (Choudri) had done nothing wrong,&#8221; Sawyer told the Chronicle. &#8220;Given my experience as a criminal defense attorney, I was also mindful that facts can be mischaracterized or misconstrued.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In the end, the attorney said, &#8220;he (Choudri) was right. I was wrong.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Board directors at the Rail Authority discussed an independent legal review of the arrest during their meeting Wednesday and decided that Choudri could resume his position on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The board met in closed session and completed its review of the independent counsel investigation to consider all available information regarding the matter concerning CEO Ian Choudri,&#8221; board chair Tom Richards said. &#8220;The board requests Mr. Choudri return to work tomorrow, March 5.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This article originally published at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/california\/article\/california-high-speed-rail-ceo-return-work-21958588.php?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=yahoo_syndication\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:CEO of California High-Speed Rail cleared to return to work after arrest;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">CEO of California High-Speed Rail cleared to return to work after arrest<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of the California High-Speed Rail Authority has been cleared to return to work, members of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,52317,8,95544,95543,85858,34569,34571],"class_list":["post-207074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-high-speed-rail","tag-california-news","tag-ceo-ian-choudri","tag-criminal-defense-attorney","tag-domestic-battery","tag-ian-choudri","tag-rail-authority"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207074","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=207074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}