Man pleads to fifth OWI after one-car crash that injured passenger

A 55-year-old Town of Fredonia man who crashed his vehicle in June, seriously injuring his passenger, pleaded guilty in Ozaukee County Circuit Court last week to fifth-offense drunken driving and second-degree recklessly endangering safety.

During a Feb. 2 hearing, Judge Adam Gerol accepted the pleas of Michael J. Sullivan, found him guilty and set his sentencing date for April 21.

Ozaukee County District Attorney Benjamin Lindsay is recommending Sullivan be sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison and three years of extended supervision.

According to a criminal complaint, at 9:14 p.m. June 22, Ozaukee County sheriff’s deputy Johnathan Chang responded to a severe crash detection alert, perhaps from a cell phone, and found a severely damaged vehicle off the roadway on Highway H in the Town of Fredonia.

Chang noticed the vehicle was still warm, meaning it was recently operated, and found Sullivan in the driver’s seat making small movements.

A passenger was face-down on the dashboard. Neither that person nor Sullivan had been wearing seat belts and both suffered significant cuts to their heads and faces. The passenger was initially unresponsive, the complaint states.

Chang said Sullivan’s speech was slurred and his breath smelled of alcohol. Sullivan repeatedly asked for a lighter for his cigarette and claimed not to know the name of his passenger, even though he refereed to him by his first name and continuously apologized to him, according to the complaint.

The passenger had to be extracted from the vehicle and was taken by ambulance to Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, then flown by helicopter to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa.

Sullivan did not have a driver’s license at the time of the crash because it had been revoked for prior driving while intoxicated offenses. He was charged with driving without a license and not having an ignition interlock device on his vehicle, but those charges, as well as a bail jumping charge, were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

According to court records, he was convicted of operating while intoxicated four times between 1990 and 2023 in Ozaukee and Washington counties.

Sullivan had been free in lieu of $15,000 bail, but during last week’s plea hearing Gerol revoked his bail and remanded him to jail until his sentencing. The judge also ordered a presentence report.