Arrested driver: Drunk? Designated? Dyslexic?

• Police Beat

Police Beat

Talk about it

River Falls police detained a 29-year-old local man downtown after 2 a.m. Sunday, July 15, for revving his truck, swerving, squealing his tires and for pretending to pull over before driving off again. When he was finally stopped, the officer said the man had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, but the man denied drinking, claiming to be the designated driver. The officer noted the man had no passengers and asked why he was slurring his words. The man replied that he had dyslexia. The officer noted that he knew people with dyslexia, a reading disorder caused by the brain’s inability to process certain words and symbols, and said they all spoke just fine.

The man was then asked to do field sobriety tests, but he wanted to do them out in the street and not on the sidewalk.

After some time he was arrested for drunk driving-2nd offense and exhibition of power. Later he was released from the police station to the sober care of his father.

Police also:

--Cited for theft a 36-year-old Farmington, Minn., man for allegedly stealing a money order accidentally left behind by a customer at WESTconsin Credit Union, 1207 N. Main St., last week Thursday, July 12. The money order was forgotten on a counter next to a teller’s window. The suspect was tracked down, in part, by the credit union’s video surveillance. He works for a steak company and drove away with the money order in his white refrigerated truck. The money order belongs to a 60-year-old River Falls man. Surveillance video allegedly shows the suspect, wearing sunglasses, looking around before taking the money order and walking out. He was reached later by police and claimed he took the money order by mistake and didn’t spend any of the money. He was still given a $240 fine.

--Arrested a 33-year-old River Falls man for disorderly conduct and property damage at Kwik Trip, 1238 N. Main St., last week Tuesday afternoon, July 12. Police were called there for a man hitting employees while digging through the dumpster. He was also threatening and chasing store customers. The man was found to be drunk. He was also treated by a River Falls paramedic for bloody abrasions on his face and upper torso from fighting. The man was eventually given fines totaling more than $400 and given a no-trespass notice for Kwik Trip.

For more, please read Police Beat in the July 18 print edition of the River Falls Journal.

Tags: crime and courts, river falls, news, crime