Crime & Safety

Six Recent OWI Arrests Come in a Variety of Types

Besides alcohol levels of .13, .18, .20 and .24 for four drivers, another is stumbling high on pot and another doped on a whole pharmacopoeia, police reports say.

Three drivers from Wauwatosa were among a slew of people arrested over the past week on suspicion of operating while intoxicated on Tosa's streets.

At 2 a.m. Sunday, a 23-year-old Wauwatosa woman was arrested on suspicion of her first offense after several witnesses called to report her as possibly intoxicated and driving dangerously.

An officer was dispatched to the area of Blue Mound and Mayfair roads, and on the way was advised the woman had just pulled into a driveway in the 10600 block of West Michigan Street.

Find out what's happening in Wauwatosawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Callers were waiting at the corner, keeping an eye on her. One witness told the officer the woman had nearly hit her on the freeway.

The officer approached the suspect, who said she couldn’t imagine why anyone would report her. But the officer smelled a moderate odor of alcohol about her and said her speech was slow.

Find out what's happening in Wauwatosawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Returning to the witnesses while other officers detained her, the officer learned that they had first spotted her while driving west on Interstate 94 near Miller Park and that she had been weaving all over the road. They watched her all the way past the Zoo Interchange and followed when she exited for Mayfair Road North.

The driver, still denying that she was intoxicated, performed poorly on sobriety tests and then blew a .20 blood alcohol on a preliminary breath test, later registering a .18 on the evidentiary test.

Nodding off, driver runs stop sign and is hit by truck

At 2:54 a.m. Saturday, a 47-year-old Wauwatosa man was arrested on suspicion of his first offense after he ran a stop sign on West Meinecke Avenue at North 68th Street and was hit by a truck that was unable to stop for him.

The suspect told the truck driver – and he told police – that he had run the stop sign because he was tired and had fallen asleep at the wheel.

The investigating officer found that the driver smelled of alcohol and had glassy, bloodshot eyes.

He asked him to perform field sobriety tests and then a voluntary breath test, which registered a .13 blood alcohol concentration.

Neither driver was injured in the crash.

Woman admits to taking a cocktail of prescriptions

At 9:27 a.m. Dec. 9, a 39-year-old Wauwatosa woman was arrested for driving while intoxicated by drugs after callers reported her “all over the road.”

She was stopped in the 2700 block of North 92nd Street. She said she had drunk a whole bottle of wine the night before and in the morning had taken Valtrex, Lexapro, Buspirone, Zyrtec, Singulair, Oxycodone and another anti-anxiety drug whose name she could not recall.

She also admitted knowing that every one of those drugs alone, much less all of them together, should not be taken with alcohol.

Odor of marijuana implicates Milwaukee man

At 2:59 a.m. Sunday, a 22-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested on suspicion of first-offense operating while intoxicated on drugs after he was pulled over for a burned-out headlight and having no front license plate on Blue Mound Road at North 76th Street.

The patrol officer discovered that the man's driver’s license was suspended and said there was a powerful odor of freshly burned marijuana coming from the car.

The man admitted having smoked pot earlier and handed over a soda can he said contained the roach (actually found in a different soda can).

The suspect performed poorly on field sobriety tests, at one point asking if he could hold onto his truck for balance.

He refused to give a voluntary blood sample and was taken to Wisconsin Heart Hospital for a mandatory draw.

'I give up,' says woman when asked to perform tests

At 2:55 a.m. Tuesday, a 25-year-old New Berlin woman was arrested on suspicion of her second drunken driving offense after a traffic stop in the 10500 block of West North Avenue.

A patrol officer in an unmarked squad car saw her stopped beyond the stop line at a red light at North and Mayfair. While the light remained red, he said, she slowly crept forward until she was blocking the southbound lanes of Mayfair. Then, still before the light changed, she finally drove on through the intersection.

The officer pulled her over and immediately noted that her speech was slow and slurred, her eyes glassy and bloodshot, and that he could smell alcohol even over the cigarette she was smoking.

She agreed to perform a field sobriety test, but on the first step, she stopped and said, “Can you … just arrest me?” The officer asked if she was sure she didn’t want to continue, and she said, “No, I don’t. I give up. I ran the red light because … obviously it was a red light… obviously.”

She consented to a chemical breath test and blew a .20 blood alcohol concentration. The report did not note when she was convicted her first time.

Driver with .24 BAC knew it was time to stop

At 2:23 a.m. last Monday, a 33-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, first offense, after a patrol officer saw him pull to the curb in near North 81st Street and Rogers Avenue and later passed by again to see him slumped over the wheel.

The man said he was drunk – quite drunk – and he had decided it was time for him to stop driving. “I was just done,” he said. He blew a .24 BAC.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

More from Wauwatosa