Sunday, April 14, 2013
Wauwatosa officers have been making a concerted effort to stop and arrest drinking drivers. The effort is paying off, but police would prefer people would just get the message and stop doing it.
The Wauwatosa Police Department, along with others in the metro area, is making no secret that it is on heightened watch for impaired drivers and has made a slew of arrests to show for it. Four more recent arrests show they are getting the job done, but also indicate that still too many people haven't realized the heat is on for drinking and driving. According to police reports: At 8:53 p.m. Tuesday, a 53-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, first offense, after another driver ran a red light and crashed into his car after exiting U.S. Hwy. 45 onto West Capitol Drive. While investigating the crash, an officer smelled alcohol on the crash victim’s breath and asked him to take sobriety tests, which he …
Friday, April 12, 2013
Out on bond for her fifth drunken driving charge, filed in September, she's again found behind the wheel and driving dangerously.
A Wauwatosa woman with her fifth drunken driving charge still pending in court from a September arrest has been arrested and charged yet again, according to court records. Denise Geri Stoiber, 52, was charged with three felony counts Friday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court: driving while intoxicated for her fifth or sixth time; driving with a proscribed blood-alcohol concentration; and bail jumping. According to police and court reports: At 9:34 p.m. Tuesday, Stoiber was stopped for erratic driving in the 1700 block of North Mayfair Road. Two patrol officers in a single squad car saw her make a very wide, slow turn from Blue Mound Road onto Mayfair and, as they followed, saw her weave from one lane to another repeatedly and watched as she…
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Witnesses see woman hit car in supermarket parking lot and leave with a child on board. She's found at home, passed out, with two more children without supervision.
Two recent deployments of the High-Visibility OWI Task Force, on April 1 and again on Saturday and Sunday, netted five more drunken driving arrests on Wauwatosa streets – all first offenders, but one made the more serious by a collision and the presence of a child. At 1:50 p.m. April 1, a 37-year-old Wauwatosa woman was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, first offense, after callers reported she had hit a parked car in the lot at the Pick ‘n Save store at 6950 W. State St. and left with a minor child in her car. She was identified by her license plate and officers found her at her home a short time later. They were allowed in by a child, and found all together three children, the oldest 10, standing around the suspect’s bed trying …
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
A Milwaukee man made threats to a Wauwatosa police officer’s life after a fifth drunk driving arrest. He claims his son is part of white supremacist group the Aryan Brotherhood.
A 53 year-old Milwaukee man arrested Saturday and now charged with his fifth count of drunken driving threatened a Wauwatosa officer and his family, invoking the Aryan Brotherhood and a Texas double murder in the threat, police reported. He also claimed to have once actually tried to kill a Wauwatosa police officer – and court records suggest that he may have been telling the truth. Jeffrey Louis Strasser was charged Tuesday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with operating while intoxicated, fifth offense, a felony punishable by up to six years in prison, and with disorderly conduct. According to police report and court records: At 4:24 p.m. Saturday, first a Milwaukee County deputy and then two civilian drivers reported Strasser swerving …
Dennis J. Haase, 63, was pulled over after driving slow and nearly hitting a Brookfield police officer.
A Wauwatosa man who was arrested in Brookfield in 2011 for his fifth drunken driving offense will spend 14 months in prison. Dennis J. Haase, 63, was pulled over by the Brookfield Police Department on Oct. 19, 2011, after he was driving too slow and nearly hit a police officer while changing lanes. He had a .149 percent blood alcohol concentration at the time of his arrest. Waukesha County Judge Patrick Haughney also sentenced Haase on Friday to three years of extended supervision following his prison sentence. Haase’s driver’s license was revoked for three years. After being pulled over and asked how much he had to drink, Haase told the officer “not much” but was unable to pass field sobriety tests. He was also convicted of OWI in 1991…
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Among other lowlights of recent drunken driving stops: A Muskego man caught driving on the sidewalk, and a Waterford man who was about 3½ times over the limit.
At 12:03 a.m. Saturday, a 32-year-old Wauwatosa man was arrested on suspicion of his third drunken driving offense after a traffic stop in the 2100 block of North 68th Street. A patrol officer monitoring traffic at 60th and Vliet streets said his attention was drawn to the man’s car because of a loud exhaust. He followed north on 60th and saw the driver weave over the center line. The man then pulled to the curb and the officer passed him, then went about a block further and pulled into a parking lot and turned off his lights. After a few minutes, the suspect proceeded and turned west onto Lloyd Street. Again the officer followed and pulled him over after he saw him cross the center line almost entirely into the oncoming lane. The driver …
Monday, April 1, 2013
Officer runs a random plate late in the evening and finds unpaid parking ticket suspension – and then finds he's stopped a man way over his proscribed alcohol limit.
A 31-year-old Milwaukee man stands charged with his fourth drunken driving offense within five years, a felony, according court records. Derek John Richmond was arrested Sunday night and charged Monday morning in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with fourth-offense operating while intoxicated occurring within a five year span, a Class H felony punishable by up to six years in prison. At 11:34 p.m. Sunday, a Wauwatosa patrol officer was following Richmond in the 6700 block of West State Street and upon running his license plate saw that his license was suspended for unpaid parking tickets. He pulled Richmond over in the parking lot at Toppers pizza, 6810 W. State. The officer said he smelled a slight odor of alcohol that became “stronger and …
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Beginning early Saturday afternoon and through Sunday night, seven drivers were caught in a highly publicized dragnet for drunken or drugged drivers on holiday weekend.
The last report of suspected drunken or drugged driver arrests for the St. Patrick's Day weekend was approved Wednesday, and here are the seven drivers rounded up in Wauwatosa during the OWI Task Force roundup on Saturday, March 16, and Sunday, March 17. They can't say they weren't warned. Metro police departments, county sheriff's and the State Patrol all put out well-covered media releases, held streetside officer roll calls, and partnered with taverns and hotels to let the public know there would be dozens of extra officers out looking only for intoxicated drivers. They found them. Wauwatosa, a hub of the metro transportation system, tied the City of Milwaukee among municipal police departments for the most arrests. "We wish we had made…
Monday, March 18, 2013
First intoxicated driver is stopped and arrested early Saturday afternoon, before Task Force deployment has even begun.
Full reports aren't in yet, but the Wauwatosa Police Department made seven arrests for suspicion of drunken driving during a major deployment of force over St. Patrick's Day weekend, a department spokeman said. Among them was at least one driver who tipped the Breathalyzer scale with a .28 blood alcohol concentration, and another who started the celebration off wrong by getting arrested an hour before the OWI Task Force operation even began. Tosa police, participating with many metro area municipal police departments plus the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department and the State Patrol, made 42 traffic stops and handed out 45 citations for all types of violations Saturday and Sunday. Metro-wide, there were 49 OWI arrests among 574 stops, …
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Sunday's St. Patrick's Day is among the biggest binge drinking events of the year in Wisconsin. Is it the biggest?
Almost any national ranking of alcohol consumption finds Wisconsin near the top. Forbes Magazine named Milwaukee “America’s Drunkest City” in 2006. A story from 24/7 Wall St. ranked the state No. 6 among beer-drinking states in 2011, citing statistics that say Wisconsin has more binge drinkers and heavy drinkers than any other. And at least one study suggests Wisconsin has the most drunk drivers in the nation. In a state that loves to find an excuse to lift a glass, which special event inspires the most drinking to excess? Vote in our poll and discuss the issue in our Comment stream.
jodi
9:41 am on Saturday, May 18, 2013
Second person with a 6th offense this week. Why aren't they in jail after one or two. more ›