Law enforcement in Scott County responded to reports of a possible hit-and-run accident in early August. A Prior Lake woman says someone ran way after hitting a parked car in the neighborhood. Another man in the neighborhood says that he heard squealing tires and a sound like a car accident that same morning. Scott County officials say that a car accident happened in the Prior Lake neighborhood around 3:15 in the morning.
A Scott County deputy responded to the area with his police dog. The deputy says that he saw two men heading into a wooded area. The deputy later found two men on the ground in the woods. One of the men is now accused of drunk driving related gross misdemeanor charges of criminal vehicular operation. The man faces several other lesser charges, including misdemeanor driving while impaired allegations.
Authorities claim that one of the men said that the other had had too much to drink before the alleged incident. Officials say that the man who made the statement was the passenger in the car involved in the accident.
The man who deputies think was the passenger in the car said that the two men had been drinking at a bar in Shakopee. The man law enforcement believes was the passenger says told authorities that he had needed a ride home, and was in the car with the other man. Authorities say that the man also said he hit his head and was dizzy (and potentially disoriented) after the crash.
Deputies say that the Shakopee man accused of driving the car blew a 0.18 percent alcohol level in a breath test that was administered about three hours after the accident. He faces two gross-misdemeanor counts of criminal vehicular operation, misdemeanor DWI and misdemeanor failure to stop after a car accident with property damage.
Source: Shakopee News, “Man accused of fleeing drunken-driving crash,” Shannon Fiecke, Sep. 8, 2012
