Minnesota Sheriff Crashed His Patrol Car While Drunk

How anyone survived such a violent wreck is a mystery.

While we love highlighting the heroic efforts of law enforcement, sometimes they’re the ones breaking the law. A case out of Minnesota involved Sheriff Dave Hutchinson crashing his car after getting drunk while attending a law enforcement convention of all things, causing a huge uproar after many demanded he resign but refused. It’s quite the tale that can be told in part using the dashcam footage of deputies responding to the accident.

Watch police run over a drug trafficker that’s trying to get away here.

The crash in question happened on December 8, 2021, sometime after 2 am. Multiple people called 911 to report the accident as bystanders tried to keep the victim, who was crawling away from the wreckage, from going onto the freeway. Dashcam footage shows the sheriff stumbling on his feet,

Sheriff Hutchinson told a lot of stories to deputies that night. One of the most entertaining and ridiculous was that a cab driver was behind the wheel of his cruiser, hinting that it was in fact a taxi and not a cop car. If you’ve ever spent time around someone with addiction problems, you know they can get pretty creative in their attempts to cover their tracks. However, using facts and scrutinizing what they say will quickly reveal the deception.

An investigation revealed quite a few interesting facts. Investigators concluded the sheriff wasn’t wearing his seatbelt while driving 126 mph right before the crash, as recorded by the cruiser’s black box.

Photos taken at the scene are horrifying. You can see the Explorer was mangled almost beyond recognition, with pretty much just the occupant area preserved in the rollover single-car accident, showing the vehicle was well-designed to preserve life in a violent crash.

Debris burst out with some memorable items like a revolver sitting it the snow, a bottle of whiskey, and the book A Simple Act of Gratitude. Ironic.

Hutchinson’s attorney said after the trial that troopers would even “charge Mother Teresa” upon suspecting she was driving drunk. That’s how things should be. His client was a far cry from being pure as the driven snow, picking up four charges with four-degree driving while impaired and operating motor vehicle under influence of alcohol dismissed.

His carrying pistol under influence-alcohol charge was continued for dismissal, however the sheriff was convicted of operating motor vehicle with alcohol concentration 0.08 within two hours, a misdemeanor charge. That was all done under a plea agreement, with the sheriff serving probation instead of being incarcerated.

As one might imagine, plenty of people thought Sheriff Hutchinson should have resigned after this crash, but he didn’t. Even after more allegations of misconduct came to light, he doggedly continued to serve in his post. Despite fears he would do the opposite, he didn’t run for reelection in 2022.

That wasn’t the end of Hutchinson’s law enforcement career. He was hired back on with Metro Transit Police Department, where he worked before becoming sheriff, serving as a sergeant. This was allowed by a law that gives people the chance to go back to their old job after being in an elected position. Not everyone thinks Hutchinson should be in law enforcement, with some unnamed sources inside Metro Police telling journalists many in the department were “furious” about being forced to rehire the man.

Being the Twin Cities area, many media outlets tried to insinuate Hutchinson’s political views, which obviously clashed with the prevailing winds in that metro area, were to blame for his behavior. Last time we checked, drunk driving wasn’t a political persuasion. We don’t really care what he or any other cop who behaves badly thinks about such things, but we do care when they cross the line.

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