Third-Offense Drunken Driving Suspect Arrested

Most people stopped on suspicion of drunken driving tend to 'fess up to having two or three beers, as if to explain their slightly erratic behavior without perhaps incriminating themselves.

But most do not, after being arrested, come clean with a detailed log of their bar tab during a 12-hour binge, as this Milwaukee man did.

At 2:34 a.m. Sunday, the 29-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, third offense, after a patrol officer saw him driving erratically through the Village on State Street.

Following him, the officer ran his plates and found they were suspended. The suspect continued to weave his way up Menomonee River Parkway, and the officer stopped him at Charles Hart Parkway.

The driver showed all the signs of intoxication and admitted that he’d had about three beers. But after the officer interviewed him further, pointing out some of his driving behavior, and repeated the question, the suspect amended his answer to say he’d probably had more like six or seven beers and a shot.

After he performed poorly on standardized field sobriety tests, he submitted to a preliminary breath test that registered a .219 blood alcohol concentration.

In a final statement upon booking, the driver told officers his real drink tally, from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. with a group of friends at Kelly’s Bleachers tavern, 5218 Blue Mound Rd., Milwaukee, was: nine beers, four mixed drinks and three shots.

He had been convicted of operating while intoxicated in 2007 in Eau Claire County and again in 2009 in Jackson County.