Gilroy Police detectives pressed the investigation Monday
following the death Saturday morning of 15-year-old Sarah Botill,
the daughter of a city firefighter.
Gilroy Police detectives pressed the investigation Monday following the death Saturday morning of 15-year-old Sarah Botill, the daughter of a city firefighter. The teen died – possibly from alcohol poisoning – after a sleepover with two friends at the home of an ex-city councilman, police and sources said.
Three girls had been drinking vodka in the early hours of Saturday morning in the 9700 block of Bunting Court, police reported, when events turned tragic.
Firefighters at Las Animas Station were dispatched to the home of former councilman Roland Velasco and his wife, Lisa, sources said. Firefighters were dispatched at 8:46 a.m. and arrived at 8:52 a.m., Gilroy Police Sgt. Wes Stanford said. Police said the teenager, a friend of the Velasco’s daughter, was alive but unresponsive and had difficulty breathing when fire and police responded to the call.
The girl – who firefighters confirmed is the daughter of Mike Botill – died at Saint Louise Regional Hospital late Saturday morning, police said.
“That situation is tragic beyond words,” Gilroy City Councilman Perry Woodward said Monday, echoing the sentiments of other council members. “I know we all feel awful about what happened.”
Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro said that Velasco told him that he was asleep while the girls were drinking. Velasco kept playing the situation over in his head, asking himself what he could have done differently, Pinheiro said.
“(Velasco) and his wife are going through hell,” Pinheiro said.
Velasco, a policy aide for Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage, declined to speak when reached at his home on Bunting Court Saturday and he did not return phone calls Monday. Velasco led the charge in 2007 to pass Gilroy’s social host ordinance, a law designed to punish families who knowingly allow teens to have alcohol at parties.
“This is not replicating laws currently on the books,” Velasco said in 2007. “It’s still illegal for an underage person to purchase alcohol. What this ordinance does do, is allow the city to fine a host – whether a parent or older brother – if the police are called to break up a large party that’s serving alcohol to kids, and to fine the host for the cost of having the police roll out there and break things up. In that sense, we hope to curtail teenage drinking and recover some of the costs involved to the city, and that’s good public policy.”
The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office conducted an autopsy Monday, but Gilroy Police spokesperson Sgt. Jim Gillio said results might not be forthcoming for five to six weeks. Gillio also said the department would not comment on any tests “given or not given to determine alcohol content” and that it is still unclear whether alcohol caused the death, though police do know where the alcohol came from.
At the Las Animas Fire Station Saturday afternoon, a somber Battalion Chief Ed Bozzo said the situation was difficult for the fire department.
“It’s tough when you’re dealing with your own family like this,” he said.
Bozzo described the fire department as a family. He said a firefighter on the scene notified him right away when he recognized Sarah Botill at the scene.
Gage said Velasco was taking time off work Monday.
Don and his wife, Jeanne, who attended the Gilroy Downtown Holiday Parade on Saturday, said they have known the Botill family for years and that the tragedy was compounded by the Botill’s loss of a 23-month-old child to illness in 1999.
Council members, who know some of the families involved also expressed sadness over Botill’s death.
Councilwoman Cat Tucker said she had never served on the council with Velasco but she knew him from church and that he was “a really good guy.”
Tucker said it did not appear the social host ordinance would apply in this instance, as he didn’t know the teens were drinking. Teenagers often try to get away with things no matter how good their family is, she said.
“That could have been anybody’s child,” Tucker said.
