Stevens Point man gets 5 years for 10th OWI

STEVENS POINT – A Stevens Point man will serve five years in prison and be forbidden to drink alcohol for the next 10 years as a result of his Thursday sentencing on a 10th-offense drunken driving charge.

Michael Vollrath, 38, also will serve five years of extended supervision after his release from prison. He was arrested Feb. 21 in the town of Linwood when a sheriff's deputy stopped to investigate a crash in the 1000 block of Highway 66. The deputy observed Vollrath and another man trying to push a car out of the ditch.

The other man initially told the deputy he had been driving prior to the crash, the complaint said, but later said Vollrath was the one driving. After administering the field sobriety tests, the deputy arrested Vollrath.

A breath test performed at the scene registered Vollrath's blood alcohol content at 0.27 percent. He was restricted to driving with no more than a 0.02 percent BAC because of past drunken driving convictions, according to the criminal complaint.

Portage County Circuit Judge Thomas Eagon ordered Vollrath on Thursday not to use any drugs and not to spend time with anyone who has been drinking, and to comply with any drug or alcohol treatment programs recommended to him as part of his prison assessment.

In addition to the prison time, Vollrath will have to pay $3,214 in fines and also pay a $26 fee for the blood draw taken after the crash.

Portage County Assistant District Attorney Cass Cousins told the court in May that five years in prison and five years on extended supervision was part of a plea deal reached with defense attorney Adam Raabe when Vollrath pleaded guilty to the drunken driving charge May 22. As part of the deal, prosecutors dismissed a charge of operating a motor vehicle with a prohibited alcohol content.

Vollrath first was convicted of drunken driving in February 1994. His most recent previous conviction came in October 2009 in Wood County.

Vollrath had been held in Portage County Jail on a $25,000 cash bond.