Maple Grove Woman's Drunken Boating Seriously Hurt 2 Kids: Cops

HENNEPIN COUNTY, MN — A Maple Grove woman was charged with four counts of criminal vehicular operation for recklessly operating a boat and sending two children careening into a dock where they suffered serious injuries, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Tuesday.

Jordan Seitz, 34, was charged with two counts of criminal vehicular operation-gross negligence and two counts of criminal vehicular operation-under the influence. All four counts reference great bodily harm to the injured victims, according to a news release.

According to the criminal complaint, Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies were sent to Eagle Lake in Maple Grove about 8:10 p.m. Saturday where they learned Seitz was hosting a boating party for 10 of her daughter’s friends.

Seitz was operating a boat and pulling two rafts containing some of those children, authorities said.

Seitz drove too close to shore and as she turned back toward the open water, one of the rafts hit a fixed dock, according to police.

Two of the children were seriously injured and taken to the hospital. A boy suffered a fracture of his lumbar vertebra, cuts, collection of fluid in his abdominal cavity and loss of consciousness, the complaint states. A girl suffered a head injury.

Deputies said that while talking to Seitz, they smelled alcohol on her breath and saw her eyes were watery and bloodshot. A breath test obtained a reading of .10, above the legal limit of .08, authorities said.

A blood sample was taken from Seitz about two hours later, and those results are pending, according to the complaint.