Man faces charges of driving drunk twice on same day

A 54-year-old Town of Fredonia man accused of crashing a pickup truck into a ditch, then driving another truck that was used to try and tow it out is now charged in Ozaukee County Circuit Court with driving drunk twice on the same day.

Timothy R. Boetcher was charged on March 17 with fourth-offense drunken driving, a felony, after he was pulled over driving a maroon Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck that was seen trying to tow a gray Ford F-150 pickup truck out of a ditch along Belgium Kohler Road in the Town of Fredonia. 

Boetcher denied driving the Ford F-150 that was in a ditch, but on April 17 a witness identified him as the driver of that vehicle and last week Boetcher was charged for a second time with fourth-offense drunken driving. If he is convicted of both charges, presumably the one filed last week will be amended to fifth-offense drunken driving.

According to a criminal complaint, an Ozaukee County sheriff’s deputy was called to the scene of the accident at 7:14 p.m. Sunday, March 16, and found the F-150  in a ditch on the south side of Belgium Kohler Road. The truck, which was leased to R&B Sales and Marketing, was unoccupied.

A witness who lives in the area told the deputy he heard the crash, then went to the scene and helped the driver out of the truck. He described him as being about 50 years old with a gray, pointy beard.

The witness said a woman who was a passenger in the truck walked away from the crash heading west on Belgium Kohler Road.

The witness said a maroon Silverado arrived and tried unsuccessfully to pull the Ford out of the ditch, adding that he believed the drivers of both trucks had been drinking. Both men then drove away in the Silverado, the complaint states.

At 7:45 p.m., the deputy saw the Silverado drive slowly past the scene of the accident, noting that the front of the truck was covered in dried mud.

The deputy stopped the truck, which was being driven by a man with a gray pointy beard identified by his driver’s license as Boetcher. 

Boetcher said he was not involved in the crash and was coming from a friend’s house, but when asked where his friend lived, Boetcher became flustered and eventually said he was in Germantown earlier in the day but would not tell the deputy where he had been before being pulled over. Then Boetcher told the deputy that he was headed home to Germantown even though he had told him earlier he lived in the Town of Fredonia, according to the complaint.

When asked again if he was driving the Ford F-150 earlier in the evening, Boetcher said, “I am only driving this pickup right now,” the complaint states.

When asked where he works, Boetcher seemed to have trouble answering the question and said “point to value,” according to the complaint. He later said he works for a marketing company. The deputy noted that the Ford pickup truck was leased by a marketing company.

The interior and exterior of the Silverado  were covered in mud and there was a muddy chain in the bed of the pickup truck.

While talking with Boetcher, the deputy noticed he smelled of alcohol, was speaking slowly and slurring his words, the complaint states. Boetcher refused to get out of the truck to perform field sobriety tests or take a breath test. He was arrested for driving the Silverado while intoxicated and taken to an area hospital so a sample of his blood could be drawn.

On April 17, a month after Boetcher was charged with driving the Silverado while intoxicated, the man who heard the accident and found the Ford in the ditch was shown photographs of several men, including Boetcher. The man said he was 90% certain that the photo of Boetcher showed the driver of the Ford, which led to Boetcher being charged on April 30 with driving the Ford pickup truck while intoxicated.

Boetcher was convicted of driving while intoxicated three times between 1994 and 2015, and because of those convictions he was not allowed to drive with a blood alcohol concentration of more than .02.

Boetcher is free in lieu of $5,000 bail in the drunken driving case involving the Ford. He is scheduled to make his initial court appearance on the charge he drove the Chevrolet pickup truck while drunk on May 15.