Maple Grove Police Arrest Alleged Drunken Driver with Multiple Previous DUI Offenses

A Brooklyn Park man with previous DUI offenses has been charged with driving while impaired in Maple Grove, registering a blood-alcohol content three times the legal limit when he was arrested.

Mark Thomas Jacobson, 54, was charged Aug. 6 with first-degree driving while impaired, a felony with a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $14,000 fine. The charge carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of three years.

According to the criminal complaint, signed by Maple Grove Police Detective Robert Seidenkranz, two different people contacted police just after 5 p.m. Aug. 4 to report a brown Chevrolet pickup stopped at a traffic light at Hemlock Lane and Main Street, with the driver passed out and drooling.

found the pickup on Weaver Lake Road as it turned left onto East Fish Lake Road, and stopped the driver.

As officers approached the pickup, they smelled a strong odor of alcohol on Jacobson’s breath and noted that he appeared to be "very intoxicated," according to the complaint. He failed various field sobriety tests, a preliminary breath test showed his blood-alcohol content to be .275 percent, more than three times the legal limit of .08 percent.

Another breath test was conducted less than an hour later, and Jacobson’s blood-alcohol content registered at .24 percent, according to the complaint.

Jacobson was convicted on Oct. 20, 2008 of a felony DUI offense and had "multiple other DUI offenses prior to the which made is 3008 offense a felony," accoridng to the complaint.

Jacobson remains in the Hennepin County Jail on a $60,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled Sept. 6 in Hennepin County District Court.