Drunk Driver Sentenced After Hitting Duluth Investigator

A drunk driver has now been sentenced for a car crash in which he struck a Duluth police investigator sitting in his squad.

Duluth investigator Don Boso's car looked more like a pile of scrap metal after being hit by 25-year-old Duane Porter's car in mid-March.

On Friday, a judge convicted Porter of causing Boso great bodily harm and driving while impaired. Porter will spend a year in jail or at the Northeast Regional Corrections Center for chemical dependency treatment. He'll also serve 100 hours of community service and be on probation for five years.

The complaint states the accident happened at the intersection of Central Entrance and Mesaba Ave. It said Porter drove his car up the hill around 6 a.m., drove through a red light and crashed into the side of Investigator Boso's unmarked squad car.

Both cars were in bad shape after the accident, but so was Boso. The accident sent him to the hospital with, what doctors called, life threatening injuries. They said his brain and liver were bleeding and his face was cut.

During Friday's hearing, Porter apologized to Boso and his family. Porter said he was sorry that it took an accident like this to realize he needs help with an alcohol problem.

Boso, however, said the ruling wasn't fair. He said he wanted Porter to get a stiffer sentence.

Boso said he's still trying to recover, but feels extremely lucky to be alive.

According to the complaint, Porter has a history of drinking and driving. His probation will require him to stay sober.

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Charge: Driver caught drunk two weeks after DUI sentencing

A Kent man previously convicted of drunkenly running into a pedestrian has again been charged with drunk driving.

Seventeen days after he was sentenced in another drunk driving incident, Patrick Rigg, 45, was arrested leaving a Kent bar and found to be again drunk behind the wheel, King County prosecutors claimed in charging documents.

Writing the court, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Amy Freedheim noted that Rigg was convicted of vehicular assault in 2002 after crashing into a pedestrian. He had also twice been convicted of drunk driving, including a July 2010 incident for which he was sentenced March 2.

"Given his unwillingness or inability to not become intoxicated and drive, he is a very grave danger to this community and given his history, he knows the dangers that he places on innocent citizens and yet still he continues to drive impaired," Freedheim told the court.

According to charging documents, a state trooper spotted Rigg leaving the Central Pub shortly after midnight on March 19. Believing Rigg to be impaired by alcohol, the trooper pulled him over and administered several field sobriety tests.

Prosecutors contend Rigg failed the tests, and a blood draw that showed his blood alcohol level to be .14, nearly double the legal limit.

"When asked if he believed his driving was affected by alcohol, the defendant answered by saying, 'I don't think I was that bad,'" Freedheim told the court.

Rigg has been charged with felony DUI. He remains jailed on $150,000 bail.

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