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Published May 26, 2009, 04:30 PM

Drunk dad caught after leaving grade school

A 52-year-old local man who allegedly picked up his son from Rocky Branch Elementary while drunk and then drove away, was chased, caught and subdued by police outside his apartment at 905 State Street last week Thursday afternoon. A citizen bystander assisted the lone officer on the scene. The boy left behind in his father’s car was OK.

By: Phil Pfuehler, River Falls Journal

A 52-year-old local man who allegedly picked up his son from Rocky Branch Elementary while drunk and then drove away, was chased, caught and subdued by police outside his apartment at 905 State Street last week Thursday afternoon. A citizen bystander assisted the lone officer on the scene. The boy left behind in his father’s car was OK.

Mark R. Kotowski was arrested for drunk driving for the third time with a passenger under age 16, driving while revoked, fleeing police and speeding. He was pepper sprayed to bring him under control.

Worried school officials had called police for help as the situation at Rocky Branch unfolded.

Kotowski was said to be difficult to control when arrested and later at the hospital where he was taken for a blood sample. After the hospital he was brought to jail.

Also in the past week, River Falls police:

  • Arrested a 34-year-old local man for drunk driving-3rd offense, driving while revoked, driving with open intoxicants and bail jumping just after midnight Tuesday of this week. The man was heading south in his truck from downtown Main Street. A patrol officer spotting a license plate violation on the truck led to the man’s eventual arrest and jailing.

  • Arrested an 18-year-old Prescott man for allegedly squirting his air-pump water gun at a young woman carrying her infant in the parking lot of Dick’s Fresh Mart last week Thursday afternoon. The suspect was a passenger in a car that stopped in from of the mother and child before soaking them and driving off. The young man was caught in the downtown Holiday store parking lot and given a $172 disorderly conduct fine.

  • Picked up two local teens in Glen Park last week Monday night for underage drinking. For the 17-year-old boy, it was his fourth drinking offense; for the girl, it was her third. The 16-year-old girl, reported as a runaway, also was arrested for drug paraphernalia. The boy was also arrested for obstruction because he first denied knowing that the girl was in the park.

  • Arrested a 29-year-old Eau Claire woman for allegedly putting on a pair of Nikes at ShopKo and walking out of the store without paying for them. The woman, already on probation in Eau Claire county, was searched. In her purse police claim they found the illegally obtained prescription drug Oxycodone, a pain killer. At the police station the woman allegedly tried and may have swallowed one of the Oxycodone pills. She was taken to county jail in Hudson.

    For more, please read Police Beat in the May 27 print edition of the River Falls Journal.

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