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Jurors shown video of Supreme Court candidate's DWI arrest [Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.](Saint Paul Pioneer Press (MN) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sept. 17--What started as a cordial Rosemount traffic stop ended with Michelle MacDonald screaming at police officers to get their hands off her as they pulled her from her car and accusing them of lying to trump up the charges against her. Video and audio of MacDonald's April 2013 arrest were played Tuesday during her drunken driving trial in Dakota County District Court in Hastings. She's also charged with refusing a blood-alcohol test, obstructing the legal process and speeding. The case is expected to go to the jury Wednesday after closing arguments. A family law attorney, MacDonald was endorsed in May by the state Republican Party as a Minnesota Supreme Court candidate. She had a falling-out with party leaders after her criminal charges were widely reported. Rosemount police officer Alex Eckstein, who pulled MacDonald over around 11:20 p.m. on April 5, 2013, testified Wednesday. He clocked her going 8 mph above the posted speed limit of 30 mph. The video shown in court was from his dashboard camera. MacDonald was heard but not seen for much of it. The stop began in routine fashion: Eckstein said hello and asked if MacDonald knew how fast she was going. She said she didn't. Almost immediately thereafter, she identified herself as "a reserve cop." The term is used for non-sworn volunteer officers who assist with limited police duties. MacDonald was not one. She later said she merely misspoke; she meant instead that she had attended a citizens police academy. In his testimony, Eckstein said the remark made him suspicious. "Typically, when somebody tells me that right away, they're either trying to hide something or lying about something," he said. In the video, Eckstein then told MacDonald that he smelled a slight odor of alcohol. She said she hadn't had anything to drink. Eckstein said he wanted her to step out of the car for a field sobriety test. MacDonald said she lived nearby and was just going to go home. From there, the conversation spiraled into repetition and argument. Eckstein laid out multiple times why he had stopped MacDonald; she repeated again and again that she wasn't getting out of the car and wanted to go home. She said she would walk home if she weren't allowed to drive. At one point, she said: "I'm an attorney. I do a lot of practice in Dakota County, and I'm not liking this." Eckstein called in another officer, Sgt. Bryan Burkhalter, to assist. When MacDonald stayed in the car, the officers then arrested her, opening the car doors and physically pulling her from the vehicle. She shouted "Leave me alone!" and "Get your hands off me!" as they did so. "Is this for real?" she asked. "Are you guys doing this to me?" At the police station, MacDonald continued to argue -- often emotionally and loudly -- that she should be let go. She was a good citizen, she said, and the officers had nothing better to do than fabricate accusations against her. She did not take a blood-alcohol breath test in the time allotted. Around 4:25 a.m., she obtained a private blood test from a hospital that showed a blood-alcohol concentration of less than 0.01 -- the lowest reading the test could give. Her attorney, Stephen Grigsby, focused his cross-examination of the officers on whether they had probable cause to arrest her for drunken driving. He maintains they did not, and that they simply became frustrated with her exercising her right to stay in the car. Marino Eccher can be reached at 651-228-5421. Follow him at twitter.com/marinoeccher. ___ (c)2014 the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) Visit the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) at www.twincities.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |