WARNING! Many commonly held ideas about how to avoid drunk driving charges are merely urban legends.

For example, most people have heard some variation of the advice “if you put your keys in the trunk and sleep it off, you cannot get in trouble” or “if you throw the keys some distance from the car, you’re safe.” This is wrong.

In Minnesota, the law punishes both driving and being in “physical control” of a motor vehicle while intoxicated. Even more broadly, the Courts have interpreted the phrase “physical control” to mean any “circumstances in which the vehicle, without too much difficulty, might again be started” and driven.

To see just how far this concept can go, here are some summaries of Minnesota cases where people were convicted of being in “physical control”.

• Being on the side of the road with a flat tire. State v. Woodward, 408 N.W.2d 927 (Minn. App. 1987). The tire can be changed.

• Sleeping in a car with a dead battery. Abeln v. Comm’r of Pub. Safety, 413 N.W.2d 546 (Minn. App. 1987). The battery can be jumped.

• Sleeping in a car with the keys inside while parked in an individually assigned parking spot at the owner’s apartment with a cold engine suggesting no recent driving. State v. Fleck, 777 N.W.2d 233 (Minn. 2010). The person can wake up and drive.

• Sleeping in a car that is out of gas. State v. Beckman, A19-0820, (Minn App. 2020). The person can get gas.

• Not having the key anywhere accessible if other circumstances suggest the car might have been driven earlier. Dufrane v. Comm’r of Pub. Safety, 353 N.W.2d 705 (Minn. App. 1984).

What all this means is that putting the keys in the trunk is not a safe strategy. The location of the keys is only one thing considered by the Courts. Other factors include whether the car can become operable again easily enough, and whether it is plausible to think the person drove while intoxicated earlier or might later.

In the end, trying to sleep it off is not a safe strategy and can still lead to a criminal conviction.

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If you or someone you know has been accused of driving while drunk in Minnesota, don’t wait to get the legal help you need. Contact McKinney Defense today by calling (612) 300-1208 or filling out our online form to schedule a FREE consultation. Let me fight for your rights and help you take the first step toward fair representation.

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