A Rochester woman with four previous DWI convictions has pleaded guilty in a fifth case that resulted in a crash that seriously injured her passenger.
Achol Martin Mayen, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of felony criminal vehicular operation Wednesday in Olmsted County District Court. In exchange for the plea, three other counts of felony criminal vehicular operation and one count each of gross misdemeanor DWI and misdemeanor DWI were dismissed.
Sentencing has been set for July 8.
The charges stemmed from a one-vehicle rollover crash at about 3 a.m. on Aug. 29, 2012. Officers responded to the 400 block of Third Avenue Southeast, where they found Mayen, who admitted to driving the vehicle, the report says.
She told officers her male passenger had left the scene on foot. According to the criminal complaint, officers noted the odor of alcohol and Mayen's slurred speech; a preliminary breath test registered 0.170.
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Dispatchers then were called about a man knocking on the back door of a home in the 500 block of Fourth Avenue Southeast. Responding officers found a man — Mayen's passenger — with multiple lacerations, blood dripping from his scalp and an obvious deformity to his right arm. The man said he didn't want to talk, and was having problems remembering the crash.
He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, the report says, and arrived unconscious. According to medical records, he sustained a concussion and several abrasions, in addition to a thumb injury that required surgery.
Witnesses at the scene said they saw the vehicle traveling west on Sixth Street Southeast, run the stop sign, then turn north onto Third Avenue. The vehicle appeared to be in the middle of the road, then swerved right. The witnesses' view then was blocked by trees, but they heard a large crash, the report says.
The vehicular operation charge carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.
