Crime & Safety

5th OWI Charge Brought Against Tosa Woman

Driver tried to evade officers and get home after it became clear she'd be facing another arrest for operating while intoxicated.

A Wauwatosa woman is facing her fifth count of drunken driving after Wauwatosa police pulled her over on a report from a supermarket manager that she was she was clearly intoxicated and about to drive.

Denise Geri Stoiber, 51, was charged Saturday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with operating while intoxicated, fifth offense, a felony punishable by up to six years in prison.

According to police reports:

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At 8:15 p.m. Wednesday, a call from the Pick ‘n Save at 6950 W. State St. warned of a highly intoxicated customer leaving the store and likely to drive.

A second dispatch quickly alerted officers that she had stumbled to her car and driven off the lot.

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A Wauwatosa patrol officer was right across the street when Stoiber exited, and he followed to see whether her driving would exhibit signs of impairment.

It did. At State Street and Harmonee Avenue, Stoiber stopped and waited on a green left turn arrow, then proceeded when it turned yellow, and swung wide into the far lane.

When she reached the 8500 block of Watertown Plank Road, Stoiber pulled to the curb of her own accord, but then briefly continued forward after the officer turned on his emergency lights and pulled in behind her.

She did stop again, but after a brief interview with the officer, in which she denied having been at the Pick ‘n Save and said she didn’t have her license with her, she suddenly put her car in gear and drove off.

Stoiber pulled into an apartment building parking lot in the 8500 block of Watertown Plank, which proved to be her residence, and tried to flee from her car, but a second officer responding caught her.

Because of her attempt to flee, Stoiber was arrested immediately, without the usual field sobriety tests. Officers located a state ID card in her purse and soon learned that her driver’s license was revoked after four previous OWI convictions.

She refused to consent to a voluntary blood draw and was taken to a hospital for a mandatory one.

The manager at Pick ‘n Save who called police said she had known Stoiber most of her life and that she had been coming to the store every day for the past five years, sometimes up to three times a day, to buy wine.

She said the store sometimes refused to sell Stoiber any alcohol because of her condition but had never called police before because she always came in a taxi. This time, the manager said, she knew Stoiber had driven, and she called 911.

Police said that the car Stoiber was driving did not list to her, but it was not known why she was using it because she refused to make any statement.


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