DUI suspect accused of injuring 4 pedestrians on ICE hold after judge orders her release

A North Las Vegas judge on Wednesday ordered a woman’s release from custody after she was arrested in connection with an alleged DUI crash that injured four pedestrians.

However, North Las Vegas Community Correctional Center records show that Caren Denise Quiroz-Alvarez remained in custody on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold. A spokesman for the North Las Vegas Police Department confirmed Wednesday evening that Quiroz- Alvarez was detained by the agency after being released on the charges related to the crash.

Quiroz-Alvarez, 37, is facing two felony counts of child abuse and misdemeanor counts of DUI and failing to decrease speed or use due care, court records show.

North Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Kalani Hoo ordered Quiroz-Alvarez to be released from custody during a court hearing Wednesday morning after prosecutors requested 120 days to file a criminal complaint, which would formally charge Quiroz-Alvarez.

“I’m being released?” Quiroz-Alvarez asked the judge through a Spanish interpreter.

“Right, there’s no complaint filed,” Hoo said.

Prosecutors also did not argue for the judge to set bail or conditions for Quiroz-Alvarez’s release.

She was arrested in connection with a crash that happened just after 9 p.m. Monday near Lake Mead Boulevard and Englestad Street. North Las Vegas police said there was a “large gathering of people in the parking lot” of a business on the 600 block of West Lake Mead Boulevard who were there for a vigil.

Officer Brian Thomas, a North Las Vegas police spokesman, could not confirm who the vigil was for.

Exactly a year earlier, on March 18, 2023, motorcyclist Ronald James Choyce Jr., 32, of Las Vegas, was killed in a crash with a vehicle at that intersection, according to the Clark County coroner’s office.

The crowd on Monday grew in size, and “some of the pedestrians” entered the street when four people were struck by a silver 2019 Nissan Versa, police said. The pedestrians were taken to University Medical Center with nonlife-threatening injuries.

Quiroz-Alvarez showed signs of impairment before she was arrested, police said. Two children — a 17-year-old and a 6-year-old — were in the Nissan and were not injured.

The defendant was ordered to appear in court again on July 10.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.