A late night stop at a fast food joint in Coon Rapids has led to felony drunk driving charges for an Annandale, Minnesota man. Police claim that an employee of a McDonald’s restaurant became suspicious that a man pulling through the drive-thru window at the restaurant shortly after 1:15 in the morning December 31 may have been under the influence.
Police were called to the restaurant and say that a car was parked in a spot reserved for drive-thru patrons waiting for their order to come up. Police claim several windows on the car were rolled down as officers approached the parked vehicle. Law enforcement says that officers could smell alcohol coming from the car, and police claim that the driver showed signs of impairment as police talked to him.
Law enforcement claims that as one of the responding officers returned to the squad to run the driver’s registration, the Annandale man took off from the area on foot. He reportedly was chased down and now faces a charge for fleeing a police officer on foot.
Authorities claim that the driver was convicted in 2007 of a felony DWI charge involving allegations that he refused to submit to an implied consent chemical test, according to KSTP-TV News. In the most recent DWI investigation, authorities allege that the Annandale man blew a 0.23 percent BAC reading.
Generally, Minnesota DWI charges look back ten years for prior convictions, or DWI license revocations, which can be used to upgrade a new DWI charge, issues that this blog has covered in the past. Similarly, a reading of 0.20 percent BAC or greater can be used as an aggravating factor to upgrade a DWI charge to a more serious level in the current case. However, the law treats a prior felony DWI conviction more harshly.
Minnesota law allows prosecutors to seek felony DWI charges based upon a prior felony DWI conviction. The law regarding prior felony DWI or criminal vehicular homicide convictions does not include the language providing the 10-year look back provision.
Source: KSTP 5 Eyewitness News, “Man Arrested for DWI in McDonald’s Drive-Thru,” Jennie Olson, Jan. 4, 2013
