Police Round Up 4 Drunken Driving Suspects

At 3:09 a.m. May 9, a man was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, first offense, after he crashed into two metal poles following an odd altercation with his wife.

Two citizen callers alerted police, one of whom, in the 2100 block of Swan Boulevard, said there was a woman running down the street yelling "Call the police!"

The other caller, moments later, reported a crashing sound at Swan and North Avenue.

Separate officers located the wife and her husband at about the same time, and reported that both appeared highly intoxicated.

The driver was uncooperative and so beligerent he was restrained and handcuffed immediately and put in the back of a squad car, where he commenced kicking and screaming. He refused to make a statement or to submit to sobriety tests or a blood-alcohol test.

His wife, however, was cooperative and talkative, and said that they had been following friends to a destination, had lost sight of them and stopped at a gas station for directions.

She had remained in the car, she said, but after they were back on the road, he asked her what the directions were. When she told him she didn't know, she said, he began yelling at her, and when he stopped the car, she got out and walked away.

He drove off without her and traveled two blocks before running into two poles that hold up a rain gutter extension behind Swan Serv-U Pharmacy at North and Swan.

The suspect was given a June 3 mandatory court date.

Driver imagines he's not over some limits

At 11:53 p.m. May 7, a man was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, first offense, after he zoomed past two Wauwatosa patrol officers at more than 50 mph on State Street.

The officers were engaged in a routine traffic stop in the 5900 block of State when they heard a high-revving engine and saw the suspect's car coming at them from the east.

One officer ran to his squad, where the other quickly radioed him that the driver had veered into the driveway of The Reserve aparments at 6100 W. State, apparently not realizing there was a locked security gate.

Cornered there, the man started to get out of his car and had to be ordered four times to stay put. The officer noted a strong odor of alcohol.

Asked how fast he thought he was going, the man said, "Thirty-five in a 35" (actually 50-plus in a 30-mph zone). Asked how much he'd had to drink, he said, "Legitimately, nothing really at all."

Told that he smelled of alcohol, he said, "I believe that!" Asked to explain, then, why he'd said he hadn't been drinking, he told the officer, "I didn't say I didn't drink, I said 'Legitimately, nothing really at all. If you want to Breathalyze me, I know I'm going to be under .08, no doubt about it."

The officer would take him up on that and record a .11 blood alcohol concentration.

First though, the officer asked the driver if he would perform field sobriety tests, to which he replied, "Yeah, let's do it, hell yeah."

His enthusiasm aside, he had trouble just getting started, when the officer told him to imagine a straight line running down the middle of the drive and to put his left foot on it.

"There is no imaginary line," the man said.

"You have to imagine a line," said the officer. "That's why it's called an imaginary line."

This exchange was repeated several times, even after the suspect said, "Got it."

Brakes or no brakes, you're getting a citation

At 2:53 p.m. May 4, a Wauwatosa man was arrested on suspicion of operating while intoxicated, first offense, after he ran into his own garage door and then backed across the street and smacked into his neighbor's car in his driveway.

Another neighbor called police after witnessing the episode. The driver said he'd had one beer earlier but the cause of the double crash was brake failure, not intoxication.

He smelled moderately of alcohol, however, and performed poorly on sobriety tests. He refused to submit to a breath test.

These are the signs of impairment

At 9:37 p.m. May 2, a man was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving after he was seen running over a parking sign in the lower Harwood Municipal Parking Lot in the Village.

A patrol officer spotted on Milwaukee Avenue at North 68th Street and, while he followed, saw the man drive over the curb, nearly striking a tree and another parking sign.

When the officer hit his emergency lights, the man stopped but then got out of his car and began to walk away. He returned when the officer ordered him back to his car.

Asked where he was headed, he said, "Here." Asked where he was coming from, he said, "Here."

He admitted having two drinks, but his poor performance on sobriety tests suggested a higher number. He refused to give a breath sample – something more and more drivers are doing after a Supreme Court decision requiring police to get a warrant before drawing a mandatory blood sample in the event of a refusal to take a breath test.