Crime & Safety
UV Sinks SUV - and Driver
Muskego woman is charged after she lies about drunkenly driving an SUV into a creek to protect the real driver, who was speeding home to beat his probation curfew.
A 20-year-old Muskego woman is facing charges after she allegedly lied about driving drunk during an accident in order to protect the driver.
Stephanie A. Grunert was charged in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Wednesday with one count of resisting an officer. If convicted, she faces up to nine months in prison and $10,000 in fines.
According to the criminal complaint:
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On Sept. 6, Brown Deer police officers were called to a rollover accident in the 6200 block of West Dean Road, where they found Grunert and three other men sitting on a curb with a Ford Escape laying on the passenger side in Beaver Creek submerged in one foot of water. Near the SUV was a purse with an open bottle of UV vodka sticking out.
Grunert told the officers she was driving and the three other men were the only ones in the car. She was placed under arrest for operating while intoxicated, but during the course of the investigation, officers found out another man, Patrick Kaplan, had been driving the SUV.
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Grunert then admitted Kaplan had been driving her and the three other men after they had been drinking at Brown Deer Park. Kaplan was speeding and just before the crash doing 80 miles per hour.
Kaplan was interviewed by police and he also admitted to driving the SUV, saying Grunert was too drunk to drive and he was speeding because he needed to be home in time for his probation curfew.
Grunert will make her initial appearance in court Oct. 4.
