Kyle Daniel Winter, 41, of Clearwater faces a felony charge of fleeing an officer in a motor vehicle, two gross misdemeanor DWI counts, and misdemeanor charges of fleeing on foot and obstructing legal process. The complaint was filed October 30, according to MN CRIME’s report on the complaint. A Wright County Sheriff’s Office arrest report separately lists Winter’s October 30 arrest in Clearwater on charges of second-degree DWI, fleeing an officer in a motor vehicle, and obstructing legal process.
The charges under Minnesota law
Minnesota law makes fleeing an officer by motor vehicle a felony when the driver attempts to elude an officer performing official duties, according to the state fleeing statute. The state classifies a DWI as second-degree when two or more aggravating factors were present, under its DWI statute.
Complaint account and reported evidence
The incident details here come from MN CRIME’s account of the criminal complaint, not independent reporting by this article. The outlet reports that the complaint describes a deputy responding on October 29 to a report of an intoxicated man leaving a VFW in Monticello in a Dodge Ram pickup after nearly striking several vehicles. The deputy followed the pickup through Clearwater and into Stearns County, according to the report.
MN CRIME’s summary says the driver fled after the deputy stopped the pickup, and that the deputy used the squad car to bring the vehicle to a stop. The complaint account says Winter then ran toward Interstate 94; the deputy caught him and took him to the ground, and a third deputy helped handcuff him. The report says the squad car’s hood and push bumper were damaged. It does not say Winter rammed the squad car.
According to MN CRIME’s account of the complaint, deputies found a half-empty 1.75-liter bottle of rum in the pickup, and a breath test at the Wright County jail at roughly 2 a.m. on October 30 showed an alcohol concentration of 0.21. The outlet reports that the complaint identifies the test result and a prior impaired-driving conviction as factors enhancing the DWI counts.
