BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - A top Republican legislator accused of weaving across the center line several times after a night out in Bismarck was charged Friday with misdemeanor drunken driving.
Police pulled House Assistant Majority Leader Scott Louser over during the early morning of April 16. According to court documents, a Highway Patrol trooper saw Louser’s Cadillac Escalade cross the center line “multiple times,” the Bismarck Tribune reported.
Louser, of Minot, didn’t immediately pull over after the trooper activated his lights. The trooper said in an affidavit that Louser and his passenger, legislative intern Katie Winbauer, looked surprised to see him and that Louser smelled of alcohol and his eyes were bloodshot.
He told the trooper that he had two drinks at a bar in Mandan and a drink at another bar in downtown Bismarck. He failed three field sobriety tests and was arrested after he refused to submit to a breath test. A test at the jail revealed his blood alcohol content was 0.117%. The legal limit for driving is 0.08%
Before the trooper took him to jail, Louser said his passenger was an attorney and he wanted to talk to her. The trooper gave him more than 10 minutes to confer with Winbauer before he took him to jail. Winbauer is not an attorney.
She hasn’t been charged. She said her mother works in Bismarck for Louser’s real estate company. Winbauer, her mother, Louser and other realtors had all been at the same bar earlier in the night and Louser said he would take her to see her mother as the bar was closing.
Louser is due to make his initial court appearance on May 12. Court documents don’t list an attorney for him. He told the Tribune that he hadn’t seen the court filings and had no comment aside from a statement he issued following his arrest apologizing and saying he was taking the “necessary next steps.”
House Majority Leader Chet Pollert has said Louser doesn’t have a history of alcohol issues and “folks like us should be willing to give him a break.”
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