Crime & Safety

This Party Should Have Ended On The Party Bus

A Caledonia man was arrested after police say he led them on a high speed chase going just under 100 mph.

This man was "driving just fine when they got off the party bus," a passenger told police after officers ordered four people out of a car at gunpoint following a high-speed chase through Caledonia, but something changed.

The 22-year-old Caledonia man was arrested for drunken driving and his 15th offense of driving with a revoked license, according to a report by the Caledonia Police. He was also cited for having open intoxicants in the car, having a prohibited blood-alcohol content, speeding, and reckless driving-endangering safety at 2:35 a.m. Saturday on Douglas Avenue at 3 Mile Road.

The man’s girlfriend, a 22-year-old Caledonia woman, was cited for allowing an unauthorized person to drive her car, and keeping open intoxicants in her car.

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A passenger in the car told officers the four had been celebrating a birthday on a party bus in Milwaukee, but as they drove home afterward the driver started speeding excessively—hitting speeds of 96 mph according to police. 

According to the police report, as an officer headed south on Douglas Avenue to assist the Mount Pleasant Police Department with a reckless driving call, he saw a white car speeding in the 3800 block of Douglas Avenue. 

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The officer tried to pull the speeding driver over, but instead of stopping, the man turned left onto 3 Mile Road, made a left turn onto Wyoming Way and then turned into a parking lot.

After the car stopped, officers ordered all four people inside to get out at gunpoint, and then placed them in handcuffs.

Police asked one of the back seat passengers if she had seen the police behind them. She told them “she was scared and was trying to get the man to stop driving fast” and he was “driving fine when they got off the party bus.” The woman told police she “feared for her safety, but did not know what to do.”

The four had been on a party bus that had taken them up to Milwaukee to celebrate the 22-year-old woman’s birthday and they had been dropped off on English Street in Racine.

The other passenger in the backseat also told police she knew they were chasing them. However, the 22-year-old woman told the officer she didn’t realize the police were chasing them until they were in the parking lot, that the man is her boyfriend and she didn’t know why he was speeding.

The man told police that he has a good driving record, he had never been arrested before, he was “just trying to get home” and he didn’t see the officer’s car until they were in the parking lot. When the officer asked why he was speeding, the man didn’t answer him.

In the car, police found an open bottle of vodka and bottles of two different kinds of rum.

The officer arrested the man and took him to the Racine County Jail. The officer told the 22-year-old woman that a responsible person needed to pick him up, but the 22-year-old woman told the officer she wasn’t going to look for one.

After being arrested, the man told the officer they were taking too long to get him into the jail, that it was taking too long for the officer to write out the citations and for him to get a Breathalyzer test.  The man told the officer that he was studying criminal justice at Gateway College, according to the police report.

The man’s blood-alcohol content was .10, just above the legal limit of .08.


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