Muskego Man Charged with 3rd OWI After Sleeping on the Side of I-43

A 48-Year-old Muskego man is facing his third drunk driving charge after a Mukwonago police officer found him passed out in his idling car on the side of I-43 in Town of Vernon.

Clark A. Anderson was charged in Waukesha County Circuit Court Wednesday with one count of third offense operating while intoxicated. If convicted, he faces up to one year in Waukesha County Jail and $2,000 in fines.

According to the criminal complaint, at 2:12 a.m. Sunday, the officer was driving northbound on I-43 when he noticed Anderson’s car pulled on the side of the expressway near Edgewood Avenue with the lights on and the engine running. The officer pulled behind the car and walked up to the winder where he spotted Anderson passed out in the driver’s seat and slumped over towards the passenger seat, along with a glass containing a clear liquid in the center console.

After waking up, the complaint states Anderson mumbled an incoherent remark to the office about what he was doing there and then reached for the gear shifter to try and put the vehicle in gear until the officer told him to shut the car off.

Anderson told the officer he had been at a party and a friend he couldn’t identify had been driving the car but he didn’t know where he was. He told the officer he only had one cocktail that night and two drinks in the past 17 hours.

He was unable to pass a field sobriety test and had a blood alcohol level of 0.15 at the time of the incident.

Anderson was previously convicted of driving under the influence in 1990 and 2010. He’s currently free from jail on $600 cash bail.