Blogging Blue » Drunk Driving

Mistresses behaving badly: Valerie Cass edition

Zach W — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:19:08 +0000

Apparently Valerie Cass was none too happy when her still-married boyfriend Randy Hopper was arrested for driving drunk….

The complainants who filed the report against Hopper told Venne that Cass approached their vehicle after Hopper was taken away and yelled at them. Cass had to be physically restrained by a woman who came to pick her up. Cass also attempted to take a photo of the family, according to Venne’s supplement to his report.

It’s worth noting that according to a written statement provided by the daughter of the complainants, Randy Hopper almost got into a head-on crash with a blue Mazda near Bud’s Landscaping on Highway 151 in the town of Taycheedah.

Instead of being angry at the family who helped get a dangerous drunk driver off the streets, perhaps Valerie Cass should focus her anger on Randy Hopper for choosing to drive drunk, endangering not only himself and Cass, but other drivers sharing the roads with Randy Hopper as he drove drunk.

The Randy Hopper OWI arrest dash cam video

Zach W — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 02:36:07 +0000

Enjoy!

Randy Hopper, OWI offender

Zach W — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:52:54 +0000

Photo courtesy of Fond du Lac County Jail

To say I’m a big fan of former Republican State Senator Randy Hopper (pictured, right) would be an understatement, but I’m not a fan of his politics – I’m a fan of his foibles and follies. You’ll remember Randy Hopper from such hits as “Randy Hopper, family man,” “I’m going to ruin you for every F-ing thing you’ve done,” and “Randy Hopper is a ridiculous liar,” and now we can add “Randy Hopper, OWI offender” to the list of Randy Hopper’s foibles.

Yesterday Jeff reported on Hopper’s arrest Sunday night for Operating While Intoxicated, and while he did a great job of reporting on Hopper’s OWI arrest, it’s worth mentioning that there’s at least one place you won’t hear about Hopper’s arrest – Hopper’s own radio station. As reported by MAL Contends, Fond du Lac’s KFIZ, which has a news-talk radio format and is owned by Hopper’s Mountain Dog Media, had not mentioned Hopper’s OWI arrest as of mid-afternoon on Monday.

Cudahy man arrested for 8th OWI

Zach W — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:33:03 +0000

This speaks volumes about the need for a comprehensive approach to dealing with drunk driving:

A 63-year-old Cudahy man is facing is eighth drunken driving offense after police found him asleep in his parked vehicle early Friday, according to a criminal complaint released Sunday.

Richard Dix was asleep in the driver’s seat of his Jeep while the vehicle was still running but parked in front of the front door to Wayne’s Tavern, 4854 S. Packard Ave. When police arrived, they tried to conduct a sobriety test, but Dix could not maintain his balance and had heavily slurred speech.

After being transported to St. Luke’s South Shore Hospital with a blood-alcohol level of 0.21, Dix admitted to drinking over a 14-hour period and driving at “some point,” the complaint says.

Records from the state Department of Transportation, Division of Motor Vehicles indicate Dix has had seven arrests alleging driving while intoxicated since 1989.

While I think the steps taken by legislators in Madison during the last legislative session were a good start, I still think there’s more to be done to hold repeat drunk drivers more accountable. What’s more, there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind legislators and other stakeholders need to take a good long look at what’s being done to not only change our state’s culture when it comes to alcohol, but putting their money where their mouths are when it comes to providing the necessary resources to provide individuals with alcohol abuse issues the treatment they need to address their issues.

Wood arrested again, not a soul surprised

Zach W — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:11:19 +0000

State Rep. Jeff Wood was arrested for drunk driving yet again. I don’t think there’s a single soul in Wisconsin who’s shocked that Wood was arrested again, but I think it’s clear he needs to resign his seat in the State Assembly immediately so he can focus on addressing what’s clearly a HUGE problem with alcohol and possibly prescription medication/illegal drugs.

However, while I do think Rep. Wood should resign his seat in the Assembly to focus all his time and energy on addressing his demons, I think leadership in the Assembly should also take strong steps to get their own house in order when it comes to alcohol abuse, and as the Recess Supervisor notes, they could start with a few simple changes to their rules:

- Legislators are not permitted to serve alcohol at fundraisers, nor attend fundraisers or lobbying events at which alcohol is served. Think of it as a personal behavior code for people who need one. Plus, it ends these interest group drinkathons at various venues around the Capitol once and for all.

- A legislator who incurs an OWI conviction in office automatically surrenders their seniority within the body and is barred from holding a leadership position for two full terms following the conviction. That means giving up chairmanships and surrendering any additional staff that their seniority or position affords them.

- A legislator who incurs a second OWI conviction while in the Legislature is automatically expelled from the body.

Seems pretty common sense to me, and if legislators truly cared about setting a good example on how to change a drink-happy culture here in Wisconsin, they’d start with themselves.

Senator Sullivan for the win!

Zach W — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:57:39 +0000

The Sconz said it was his quote of the day, but this has to be my quote of the year:

“It is hard to tell which is the greater obstacle to accomplishing real drunk driving reform: the bumper-sticker politics Republicans who want to pretend that governance and enforcement doesn’t cost anything, or weak-kneed Democrats who are all too happy to vote for the cookie to show they’re all for getting tough on the problem, but go AWOL when it’s time to pay for it.”

– State Senator Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa)

I’ve always lamented how spineless Democrats can be when they’re asked to take decisive action, so it’s good to see one of their own calling them out.

H/T to James Rowen and The Sconz.

7th offense OWI merits slap on the wrist?

Zach W — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:58:17 +0000

Here’s yet more proof of why Wisconsin’s long overdue for tougher drunk driving laws:

A Manitowoc man who pleaded guilty to a charge of seventh-offense driving while intoxicated has been sentenced to three years in prison.

As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed three other charges against 41-year-old Keith D. Delsman. He was sentenced Friday.

A police report says a deputy gave chase in May after observing that Delsman’s motorcycle was speeding. It says the chase reached speeds of 80 mph.

Prosecutors say Delsman evaded officers after driving through a construction site too narrow for police vehicles. Authorities caught up to him later.

Police say he told them he fled because he “had nothing to lose.”

What galls me is that the prosecutor in Keith Delsman’s case felt Delsman deserved a deal, despite the fact that Delsman led police on a high-speed chase while intoxicated, a situation that could have been much more tragic, especially given Delsman’s “nothing to lose” attitude. Keith Delsman should have gotten more than a three-year slap on the wrist, especially given his record of disregarding public safety by driving drunk.

Jeff Wood arrested for possible DUI

Zach W — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:13:08 +0000

State Rep. Jeff Wood, who was arrested in December 2008 and charged with drunk driving and possession of drug paraphernalia, has been arrested again on suspicion of driving while under the influence. Wood, 40 was stopped Wednesday in Marathon County on Highway 51 after law enforcement officials received a report of an erratic driver, according to the Wisconsin State Patrol, and according to An incident report Wood, who appeared sleepy, told the state trooper he was trying to find a spot on a map.

While a preliminary breath test for alcohol in Rep. Wood’s system was 0.00, it’s worth mentioning Rep. Wood had a bottle of Lorazepam, a prescription drug, in his pocket. According to the State Patrol report, Wood told the state trooper he had taken six Lorazepam pills that day, despite the fact that the prescribed dose according to the prescription bottle is three tablets daily. Even more disturbing, the prescription had been filled with 45 pills on Tuesday and only seven remained, according to the report, and while Rep. Wood offered an excuse for all the missing pills, I’m willing to bet the explanation for the missing pills is simple: Jeff Wood has likely substituted prescription medication for alcohol and marijuana.

Law Enforcement and Arrests in Wisconsin

MadCityMan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:42:50 +0000

The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division recently released statistics on crime and law enforcement for 2008. The reports offer a fascinating snapshot of crime and law enforcement variations by state.

You can download both sets of the complete United States statistics from the FBI website. The complete crime data is available for download here. The crime statistics are supposedly based on Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) for 29 categories of crime from the most heinous to lesser crimes. The complete law enforcement data is available for download here.

Here’s what I found:

I was curious to see where Wisconsin stood relative to other states, so I downloaded the files in Excel and performed some sorting and ranking. I was surprised to find how poorly we ranked when it came to our total arrest statistics vs. other states. I expected to find that certain poor red states would rank higher than their population percentage, but didn’t expect to see this with Wisconsin.

However, as I got to thinking about it, the statistics could also reflect several factors – better reporting than other states, greater likelihood of arrests (note the state is #1 in disorderly conduct crimes), possible misinformation entered and reported to or by the FBI, inconsistent reporting based upon state classifications of crime (even with the UCR), a more efficient law enforcement and legal system, data reported in 2008 for crimes that occurred prior to last year, data inconsistency (see the population data below for an example of this) and a myriad of other factors.

According to the FBI, the data reflected under-reporting for states like IL, which for some reason only reported arrests in Rockford and Chicago, leaving a vast geographic area of the state without any arrests reported. They also caution against comparing the data due to “variations in arrest practices.”

With the exception of our ranking by the number of female officers at 15^th highest and ranking of 22^nd for other assaults; the law enforcement and crime statistics do not paint a promising picture of our beautiful state.

Population Statistics

19^th largest state (5,607,356 in the Excel Spread Sheet; 5,627,967 on the FBI web site)

Law Enforcement Statistics

19^th largest total law enforcement team (civilians and uniformed officers)
19^th largest # male officers
15^th largest # female officers
14^th largest # of police agencies

Crime

1^st highest disorderly conduct
5^th highest forcible rape
6^th highest crime all classes
6^th highest arson
6^th highest DUI
7^th highest larceny theft
8^th highest property crime
12^th highest forgery & counterfeiting
14^th highest motor vehicle theft
17^th highest drug abuse
18^th highest violent crime
18^th highest murder
18^th highest aggravated assault
19^th highest robbery
22^nd highest other assaults

If you’d like to dig deeper into this data, you can do so by reviewing the State of Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance that has published a 283 page report on arrests in Wisconsin under the UCR that is available for download here.

Their data places the arrest statistics into 5 major buckets – violent crime, property crimes, drug crimes, society crimes and other crimes. The OJA reports the following trends (both positive and negative)

Society crimes – 172,128, down 3% from 2007
Drug crimes – 25,314, down 2% from 2007
Violent crimes – 8,133, down 1% from 2007
Property crimes – 63,596, up .3% from 2007
Other – 146,372, down 2% from 2007

While the decreases paint a slightly better picture then the absolute number of crimes, overall this data should be troublesome for all of us in the state. I was curious to look at two counties that I have connections to – Dane and Milwaukee to see what their police departments were reporting. Here’s the data for each of these counties.

At least he’s got the drunk driver vote locked up!

Zach W — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:37:13 +0000

State Representative Jim Soletski, a Democrat from Green Bay, thinks putting two traffic roundabouts near Lambeau Field is a bad idea, because some fans might be too inebriated to safely navigate the roundabouts:

“While we would hope no one will be driving impaired, the reality is that with thousands of people leaving a football game or other event, the odds are that some drivers may be less than alert after spending three to six hours at the stadium,”

In a letter to Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi, Rep. Soletski went on to add:

“It’s not going to get better by ignoring a situation that could be worsened by someone driving impaired,” Soletski said. “You hope that all Packer fans that (are drunk) have somebody else driving for them, but there’s always a possibility there may be somebody (who drives).”

While I certainly appreciate that drunk drivers might have more difficulty navigating a traffic roundabout, perhaps Rep. Soletski should be focusing his efforts on holding drunk drivers more accountable and reducing the number of drunk drivers on Wisconsin’s roads.