Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ new running mate, was arrested for drunk driving after being stopped by police while driving more than 40 miles per hour over the speed limit.
Waltz, 60, who was 31 at the time and working as a teacher in Alliance, Nebraska, was picked up by police radar just before midnight on September 23, 1995, driving a silver Mazda at 96 mph on a road with a 55 mph speed limit.
When the officer approached the window, he detected a “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage” coming from the vehicle, according to court documents.
After failing a field sobriety test, he took a breath test which revealed his blood alcohol content was 0.128 percent, well above the state’s legal limit of 0.08 percent.
Waltz was arrested and taken to the Dawes County Jail, where he was given a blood test, the results of which were not immediately available.
The following March, Waltz pleaded guilty to reckless driving and was required to admit, according to court records, that he “drove in a manner demonstrating indifference or disregard for the safety of persons or property.”
After accepting the plea deal, Waltz’s attorney, Russell Harford, tried to explain away his client by arguing that he was speeding because the officer thought “someone was chasing him” and didn’t turn on his lights at the appropriate time.
“This is a little odd, but Mr. Waltz thought someone was chasing him. The officers did not have their red lights on and someone was coming up behind him at a high rate of speed and Mr. Waltz had no idea what they were doing,” Harford told Judge James Hansen.
“So he got scared somebody was chasing him so he started speeding up and he saw a state trooper behind him and the faster he went, the faster the state trooper went,” he admitted.
Waltz ended up paying $200 in fines and court costs. He offered to resign from his position as a teacher at Alliance High School, but the principal “dissuaded him not to resign,” court records state.
The judge reprimanded Waltz for drunk driving, a charge that was of particular concern to him in his position as a teacher.
“It really bothers me to see teachers being arrested for these kinds of violations because [to be] “He’s a role model,” he said.
When the issue of Walz’s DUI arrest during his successful 2006 campaign for Congress in Minnesota came up, his campaign manager, Kelly Greeley, told a Rochester, Minnesota, newspaper: Post bulletin board He claimed he was not intoxicated and that his hearing loss, a result of 21 years of service as an artilleryman in the Army National Guard, meant he could not understand the officer’s orders.
“He couldn’t understand what the officers were saying,” Greeley argued.
According to the outlet, she also claimed that the judge “dismissed the DUI charge” against Waltz and “reprimanded the officers” for not realizing he was deaf.
But nothing is stated in the court records. Records obtained by AlphaNews to back up her claim.
According to MPR NewsTo restore his hearing, Waltz underwent a surgery called an otolithectomy to set damaged bones inside his ear.
