|
||||||||||||
|
|
Senator Metzen pleads guilty to DWI
Minnesota Senate President James Metzen today said he's "truly sorry for my lapse in judgment" after pleading guilty to driving drunk just hours after the 2007 session ended. A judge sentenced the long-time DFL senator to pay a $300 fine plus $77 in court surcharges. Metzen will also serve 20 hours of community service and be on probation for one year. It's his first DWI offense. "I, I just want to say I?m very sorry for what happened," Senator Metzen told reporters as he left the Dakota County courtroom in West Saint Paul. "Not so much for myself, I guess for my friends and family I feel really bad about it. My colleagues in the Minnesota Senate, I kind of let them down." Police arrested Metzen on the morning of May 22nd a couple blocks from his home in South Saint Paul, and only two hours after he'd banged the gavel to close the 2007 Senate session. He admitted he'd had a few drinks at a post-session party at the Kelly Inn. A police Intoxilyzer breath test put Metzen's blood alcohol content at 0.15, almost twice the legal limit. His attorney, Paul Rogosheske, told KARE 11 he considers those tests unreliable because the machines aren't routinely recalibrated. In court Rogosheske offered into the record a private blood test, taken after Metzen was released from jail, which gave him a 0.10 reading. That's still over the limit of 0.08 in Minnesota, but corresponds more closely with the senator's account that he had "three or four" drinks. Rogosheske also takes issue with those who speculate Metzen had a head start drinking that final night, based on how many times he tossed the gavel from hand to hand in the Senate chamber. In fact, Rogosheske says the fact Metzen always caught the gavel should be proof he was sober. "I mean he?s throwing the gavel, catching it behind his back," Rogosheske remarked. "I mean if he?d done that on the side of the road he wouldn?t have been arrested for crying out loud." A Mothers Against Drunk Driving advocate who sat in on the court hearing said she feels Metzen's getting off easier than some. "This is a gentleman who should know better and certainly understands the perils and the dangers, the safety issues, that we put people in when we drink and drive," Jo Baker told KARE 11. Baker lost her son Brad to a drunk driver 18 years ago. She lives in Metzen's senate district, within blocks of where he was arrested. "The impaired driver who killed my son was 0.11 (blood alcohol). And that?s just barely over the legal limit and that?s what happens." But the defense lawyer asserts Metzen is getting a harsher penalty than many, considering most first-time offenders don't have to do community service time. Senator Metzen asked the judge to include that in his sentence. "He wanted to do something more, and the prosecutor felt it was appropriate and as you saw the judge adopted it." Exactly how and where Metzen will perform his community service time has yet to be decided, but he said it will be somewhere in South Saint Paul. In a prepared statement issued by Metzen's office, he vowed to follow through with the terms of his probation. "I have had an in-depth psychological and chemical health evaluation and will comply with it's recommendation for counseling." Metzen's attorney Rogosheske told reporters the findings of the assessment will remain private. Metzen's probation terms do not prohibit him from drinking. The senator, who first arrived at the Legislature in 1974, made it clear he plans to serve the remaining three years of his term. "I?ve had a great deal of support in the community and we?re gonna go forward," Metzen said. "And I want to continue to be a good Senator for the state of Minnesota and for the district I represent." Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller decided early on there would be no ethics investigation into the case. Metzen should be back at the Capitol presiding over the Senate again next February, if not before then.
|
 MORE HEADLINES |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
