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Man with dozens of DWIs going to prison
Published 10:59 a.m., January 16, 2010
One of Minnesota's worst drunk drivers is going to prison.
Danny Lee Bettcher, 57, of rural Wadena, Otter Tail County, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for driving while intoxicated after refusing a chemical test.
Bettcher has more than two dozen DWI convictions in the past 20 years. Among them are 14 confirmed DWI offenses in Minnesota, according to the Otter Tail County Attorney’s office.
He was most recently arrested May 8, 2009 in New York Mills after police said he went through a stop sign on his motorcycle and was arrested on suspicion of felony first-degree DWI.
In May, the County Attorney’s office charged Bettcher with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, refusal to submit to testing in the first degree, and the lesser charges of driving after revocation and possession of a small amount of marijuana. All but the DWI-refusal charges were dismissed in Otter Tail County District Court. He had been held in the Otter Tail County Jail since May and reported to the St. Cloud Correctional Facility on Friday.
In January 2004, Bettcher was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for first-degree DWI, his first felony DWI conviction.
He was placed on supervised release in October 2006.
In June 2007, he was sent back to prison for a minimum of one year for violating conditions of his release by consuming alcohol and entering a business that sells alcohol.
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