Twice the legal limit for our Mayor.

This is being reported in the Minnapolis paper. http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5777870.html


DULUTH -- After crashing his car while drunk Friday night, Duluth Mayor Herb Bergson appeared to have been trying to leave the accident scene in Wisconsin before police arrived, authorities said Monday.
"Mr. Bergson was not at all cooperative," said Washburn County [Wis.] District Attorney J. Michael Bitney after reading the reports on the single-vehicle accident that led to Bergson's arrest for DWI. "He was trying to get the hell out of Dodge."
In an e-mail Monday, Bergson, who was home recovering from minor injuries received in the crash, denied that he tried to leave the scene or avoid prosecution. "Are you kidding?" he asked. "...Where was I going to go?"
Bergson's blood-alcohol level was more than twice Wisconsin's legal driving limit of .08, according to a preliminary breath test authorities administered at the time of his arrest. He was booked at the Washburn County Jail and later released to his wife.
Bergson, 49, a former police officer, was traveling south on U.S. Hwy. 53 in northwestern Wisconsin about 6:25 p.m. when he lost control, struck a bridge abutment and came to a stop with his vehicle hung-up on a guardrail, according to police reports. The accident left him with cuts on his forehead and a black eye.
When Spooner Police Officer DeWayne Olson arrived on the scene moments later, motorists who had stopped to help told him that Bergson had asked them not to call police, according to a report filed by Washburn County Sheriff's Sgt. David Dennis.
"Officer Olson...stated that Mr. Bergson was refusing medical attention," Dennis wrote. "Officer Olson also stated that he had talked with some of the motorists who had stopped to assist...and Mr. Bergson had asked the motorists not to call the police and requested that they help him push his vehicle off the guardrail. I observed the damage to the Bergson vehicle, and it was a total loss."
Dennis wrote that he convinced Bergson to go with ambulance attendants, who had been trying unsuccessfully to transport Bergson to a hospital. Dennis wrote that when a Wisconsin State Trooper arrived, he told him he believed Bergson was "possibly intoxicated due to my observation of his eyes, the nature of the accident scene and Mr. Bergson's request to motorists not to call the police."
Bergson responded today that, "I asked them to help me get the car off the guardrail because the car was revving and wouldn't shut off. The car was clearly totaled. Where was I going to go?"
In e-mails over the weekend to friends and some reporters, Bergson announced the arrest, called it a terrible mistake and asked for forgiveness and understanding. He said he plans to plead guilty to the drunken-driving offense - his first. He declined to say how much he had drunk and refused to say where.
He said he was traveling to a environmental conference in Chicago and had hoped to make it as far as Eau Claire, Wis., on Friday night.