WAUPACA, WI (WSAU-WAOW) – A 64-year-old Almond man entered a ‘not guilty’ plea to 14th OWI charge.
Daniel W. Nordell remained jailed on $25,000 cash bail Wednesday on one count of operating while intoxicated following a one-vehicle crash May 24..
According to the criminal complaint, a caller reported a crash on Grandview Road in Farmington Township about 7:30pm after a sport utility vehicle hit a pole in front of a house. A police report said the vehicle hit a mailbox, a speed limit sign and a utility pole.
Nordell told investigators he had been at a gas station in Waupaca and the brakes failed on his SUV near a cottage he was renting in Farmington Township. He said he drank three beers within the last three hours.
A preliminary breath test found his blood-alcohol content at 0.17 percent, more than twice the legal limit to drive. But because of Nordell’s previous drunken-driving convictions, his blood-alcohol tolerance level was 0.02.
Nordell’s last OWI conviction was in 2006 in Waupaca County, when he was sentenced to three years in prison and three years of extended supervision, court records indicated.
The maximum punishment for a 10th OWI or subsequent offense is 15 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
