Gov. Tim Walz’s campaign lied and said he had not been drinking the night he was arrested, when the Democratic vice presidential nominee first ran for Congress in 2006.
The congressional campaign also said Walz should be allowed to drive himself to jail.
These claims were denied by the officer who arrested Walz in 1995, when he spoke to DailyMail.com on Wednesday.
But during his 2006 campaign, Walz’s communications director said, “The drunken driving charge was dropped for a reason: It wasn’t true.” according to CNN.
“The officer let him drive to the station and then left after he was at the station,” his spokesman said. “Tim feels guilty about his speeding and paid the fine and apologized to his family when it happened.”
Tim Walz was booked into the Dawes County Jail in September 1995 after being arrested for driving under the influence
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz in 2018 before being elected governor of Minnesota
In reality, the 31-year-old Walz was arrested for drunk driving and jailed.
“Anyone can get a DUI. The DUI is a mistake. You shouldn’t get behind the wheel drunk, but anyone can make that mistake. It’s what you do about it that counts,” retired trooper Steve Rasgorshek told DailyMail.com. “At first I thought, ‘OK, fine. He stopped drinking, good for him,’ and then I started hearing, ‘Oh, well, he had this excuse.'”
Trooper Steve Rasgorshek in 2001 with then-Senator Chuck Hagel
According to court documents, Walz was pulled over by Rasgorshek on September 23, 1995, after driving the silver Mazda 96 mph in a 55 mph zone.
Rasgorshek described it as “in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska” and recalled a car speeding north from Alliance that he turned around to chase.
When Walz was arrested, there was a strong odor of alcohol.
Walz failed a field sobriety test.
He also failed a preliminary breath test and was taken to the hospital for a blood test. He was booked into the Dawes County Jail just before 3 a.m.
“He was arrested at 9:30 p.m. and I didn’t take him to jail until 2:45 a.m.,” Rasgorshek said.
“It shouldn’t take that long, but I remember waiting a long time for a tow truck. Then I think another officer came by and sat on the vehicle. We don’t just arrest someone and leave their vehicle on the side of the road,” he said.
‘Then I would have had to drive an hour to the hospital to have blood drawn because the intoxilyzer at the police station wasn’t working, and then I would have had to drive back an hour.’
According to the documents, Walz’s blood-alcohol level was .128, but Rasgorshek said it was likely higher when he pulled him over.
“There was nothing out of the ordinary, I don’t remember him acting like a jerk,” Rasgorshek said.
“I don’t think it was anything more than a typical DUI arrest. I didn’t have to fight him,” he added.
Documents show that Walz appeared in court on March 13, 1996, under Judge James Hansen, where he pleaded guilty to reckless driving.
In the court transcript, Walz’s attorney told the judge that his client initially reached a speed of 70 mph (112 kph) in the 56 mph (90 kph) zone, but then thought someone was following him.
“The officer didn’t have his red lights on … and someone came up behind him really fast and he didn’t know what they were doing, so he sped up to get away, afraid that someone was chasing him,” attorney Russell Hartford said in the transcript.
“And lo and behold, it was a state trooper driving behind him, so the faster he drove, the faster the state trooper drove,” Hartford said, admitting that by the time the trooper turned on his red lights, “the speed was way over the top” and “way too high.”
Rasgorshek didn’t dispute that. He said he had to turn around, overtake, and assess the situation to see if he needed to call for backup before he could stop anyone.
“Of course I didn’t have my lights on. I never turn my lights on until I’m behind the person I’m trying to stop. That makes sense, I was trying to pass him and he just took off,” Rasgorshek said.
Walz’s attorney acknowledged that his client had been drinking in court. He asked the judge to impose a fine.
An image of Tim Walz from his time as a teacher. Court documents show Walz tried to resign after his 1995 drunk driving arrest but was talked out of it by the school’s principal
Walz’s attorney noted that Walz was a teacher at Alliance High School at the time. Hartford said he felt “terrible” about it and “really disappointed” in himself.
“He immediately went and reported this incident to his principal. He resigned from all of his extracurricular duties at the high school, which I believe included some coaching responsibilities,” his attorney said.
“He also offered to quit his teaching job because he felt so bad about it,” he added, adding that Walz felt he had let his students and himself down.
“Luckily the principal stopped him from dropping out of school,” Hartford added.
According to the court transcript, Walz used his experience as a lesson about the bad things that can happen when you drink and drive.
Ultimately, he lost his driver’s license for ninety days and was fined $200 plus court costs.
“I certainly hope you learned from this and that you can share that with your students,” Judge Hansen said.
Walz no longer drinks alcohol and took a DWI plea in 1995 before quitting.
Perhaps the story would have been outdated if it had not changed when Walz ran for public office.
During his first congressional campaign in 2006, Walz’s arrest was unearthed by Republicans. His campaign manager Kerry Greeley told the Rochester Post Bulletin at the time that hearing loss played a role.
“He couldn’t understand what the officer was saying to him,” Greeley told the newspaper.
His spokesperson was quoted in the NUJournal as claiming that the officer refused to say anything.
Walz underwent surgery for permanent hearing damage in 2005, ten years later, but that is not how Rasgorshek remembered the incident.
“I don’t remember him saying, ‘I have a hearing problem.’ I can tell you that if he had said that, I would have said something, but I can also tell you that I’m not a quiet person,” Rasgorshek said.
“If he allows people to say something like that about something that happened 29 years ago, then he should acknowledge it, do something about it and that’s it,” he said.
When Walz first ran for governor of Minnesota, the Star Tribune reported that he had been watching college football with friends the night after his arrest.
In the report, Walz’s wife, Gwen, says she told her husband, “You can’t make stupid choices.”