7th OWI charged
A 62-year-old Genoa man has been charged in Crawford County Circuit Court with operating while intoxicated (seventh offense).
Nicholas Walls faces up to a $25,000 fine and 12.5 years in prison if convicted.
According to the criminal complaint, there was a one-vehicle crash in the village of Ferryville. A 1992 Ford Ranger was stuck off an embankment along the west shoulder of Main Street. The vehicle was several feet down the embankment and barely hanging on from rolling down onto the train tracks. A man was then found lying along the shoulder south of Ferryville on Highway 35. The man turned out to be the owner of the Ford, and he told officers that he was operating the truck and realized he was too drunk to drive, so he attempted to turn around and became stuck in the embankment, the complaint said.
The man, who was identified as Walls, said he was walking back to his father’s but then laid down on the shoulder of Highway 35, according to the complaint.
Walls admitted to drinking approximately five vodka drinks, took one .5 MG of Ambien and two .5 MG Alprazolam, which is a depressant drug, the complaint said.
Walls gave a preliminary breath test of .097 at the scene.
Walls has six previous OWI convictions in Wisconsin, with his last in 2001. Walls is restricted to .02 blood alcohol content.