Crime & Safety
Man Charged with Third OWI After Hitting Stop Sign in Front of Cop
Milwaukee man tells officer he had a "couple of beers" before driving through Wauwatosa.
A Milwaukee man is facing his third drunk driving charge after slamming into a stop sign in front of a Wauwatosa police officer while driving at more than four times the legal blood-alcohol limit.
Daniel M. Kozeniecki, 51, was charged Thursday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with one count of third-offense operating while intoxicated and one count of operating a motor vehicle with a prohibited alcohol concentration. If convicted, he faces up to one year in county jail and $2,000 in fines.
According to the criminal complaint:
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At 8:45 p.m. Jan. 15, a Wauwatosa police officer was stopped at North Mayfair Road and West North Avenue during a power failure that disabled traffic signals when she heard a loud boom and then saw Kozeniecki drive by dragging a temporary stop sign underneath his SUV.
The officer pulled him over in the Mayfair Mall parking lot and when told he was dragging a stop sign, Kozeniecki simply responded, “I know.”
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He smelled of alcohol and told the officer he had “a couple of beers” before driving. However, he had a large number of empty beer cans in the back of his car.
He failed a field sobriety test, and a preliminary breath test revealed a blood alcohol level of 0.27. But he was then given a blood test, which revealed a 0.352 blood alcohol level – very nearly 4 1/2 times the proscribed limit of 0.08 and well into the realm that for many people would induce alcohol toxicity.
Kozeniecki was previously convicted of OWI in 1992 and 2008. He will make his initial appearance in court Tuesday.
