Fresno Police Chief Mindy Casto issued a public apology late on Tuesday, October 27, to Fresno City Council candidate Naindeep Singh, after the laboratory testing his blood told the department verbally on Tuesday that his results were negative — there were no drugs in his system when he was arrested over the weekend on suspicion of driving under the influence of a drug, Fresnoland reported from the chief's late-Tuesday news conference at police headquarters.
Source: Fresnoland
Casto said she had received a “verbal advisement” from the laboratory conducting the test on Tuesday, and that she called Singh personally shortly before the news conference to apologise to him herself, according to Fresnoland. The apology reversed the position the chief had taken only hours earlier, and it came one week before voting in Singh's council race concludes on November 3.
The reversal is the latest turn in a case that has dominated Fresno politics since the weekend. Singh, 48, was arrested late on Saturday night, cited and released — not booked into the Fresno County Jail, which the Fresno County Sheriff's Office described as standard practice for a DUI case — after a traffic stop in the city's Tower District, Fresnoland reported in its earlier coverage of the arrest.
What happened on Saturday night in the Tower District
In the account Chief Casto gave at an earlier news conference on Tuesday, a Fresno police officer — a 10-year veteran and a drug recognition expert whom Casto did not name — pulled Singh over at 11:54 p.m. at the corner of Wishon and Olive avenues, according to Independent in the Field, which reported the chief's statement in detail. Casto said Singh's car tags were from 2020, which gave the officer probable cause for the stop, but that the officer confirmed the car's registration was in fact valid through August 2026, indicating the stickers had somehow been removed.
Source: Independent in the Field
Singh's own account, given at a Monday campaign event and in an interview with ABC30 Action News, is that he was in the Tower District on Saturday night observing safety changes in the neighbourhood, that he had paid the registration on June 19, and that the tags had been ripped off his plate. He said he cooperated fully with the DUI investigation, passed a breathalyser test for alcohol, and was then taken to Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, where his blood was drawn for a drug toxicology test.
Police cited Singh twice — once for the registration tags and once for allegedly driving under the influence of a drug, Fresnoland reported. At her earlier Tuesday news conference, before the laboratory result was known, Casto emphasised that her officer had done the right thing in arresting Singh after he had failed “six of the eight indicator tests” in the field sobriety examination, and she denied that the arrest was politically motivated, saying the officer was unaware of Singh's status as a candidate and that it was not the department's intent to affect an election.
Source: Fresnoland
Two tests, the same answer — and an apology
Singh had already made the laboratory's eventual finding public himself. At a Monday night news conference, he shared the results of an independent toxicology report that he had requested on the night of his arrest — taken at the hospital on the recommendation of his wife, a health professional who was with him at the time — showing no drugs in his system, and he said he expected to be fully exonerated when the police department's own report came back, Fresnoland reported. Dozens of supporters stood with him, and some of them questioned the timing of an arrest days before an election and called on the police to apologise.
On Tuesday the department's own laboratory advisement matched that independent result: negative. That is what prompted the chief's personal call to Singh and her public apology late on Tuesday. Fresnoland's report did not state whether the DUI citation has now been formally withdrawn, and the department has so far acted on a verbal advisement from the laboratory rather than a published written report — the formal paperwork is the next step readers should watch for.
Who Naindeep Singh is — and why this story travelled across the Central Valley
Singh — whose full name is Naindeep Singh Chann and who goes by Naindeep Singh — is running for the open Fresno City Council District 1 seat, representing west-central Fresno, against attorney Rob Fuentes, an elected member of the State Center Community College District board, Independent in the Field reported. He is already an elected official: a member of the Central Unified School District board. He is also the executive director of the Jakara Movement, a nonprofit rooted in California's Punjabi and Sikh community — one reason a Fresno traffic stop quickly became a story followed closely by Punjabi families across the Central Valley, home to one of the largest Punjabi diaspora communities in the United States.
His opponent's reaction has shifted with the evidence. Fuentes had previously called for Singh to step down from the race, ABC30 reported, but after Singh published his independent test he said he was waiting to see the toxicology results from Fresno police — the same results that on Tuesday came back negative and brought the chief's apology.
The arrest happened late on Saturday, October 24, the chief defended it on Tuesday morning, and the laboratory result and apology arrived on Tuesday evening — all inside the final week of a council race that concludes on November 3. Supporters had alleged the arrest was politically timed; Chief Casto denied any political motive and said the arresting officer did not know Singh was a candidate.
What happens next
Singh was scheduled to hold his own news conference later on Tuesday to address the chief's update, Fresnoland reported — his response, and whether he asks for anything further from the department, will shape the final days of the District 1 campaign. The other open questions are administrative: whether the DUI citation is formally withdrawn now that the police laboratory has advised a negative result, and whether the written laboratory report, once issued, matches the verbal advisement the chief acted on. For Central Valley readers, the case has also reopened a practical question that goes beyond one candidate: a driver can be arrested on field sobriety indicators alone, and the blood result that decides the allegation can take days to arrive — days that, in an election week, a public apology cannot give back.