Chaska Man Allegedly Chokes, Punches Lakeville Paramedics

After allegedly driving drunk and crashing his car on Interstate 35, a 43-year-old Chaska man has been charged with allegedly assaulting paramedics who were driving him to the hospital for treatment.

According to a criminal complaint filed with the Dakota County Attorney's Office, early in the afternoon of May 2, Julian Roger Miller's car had gone off the interstate and careened into a fence in the ditch.

The complaint said a passerby witnessed the incident and approached the car to help, but when the person got to the car, which was 50-feet off the roadway in the ditch, Miller was passed out with his foot on the gas pedal. The witness removed the keys and waited for police, the complaint said.

When Lakeville Police found him, he was still in his car, though by that time, awake, the complaint said.

After apologizing to officers, the complaint says Miller stumbled out of his car and fell into the cattails in the ditch. An officer noticed that Miller smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot and watery eyes, and he spoke with “extremely slurred” speech.

After declining blood and urine samples to test his blood-alcohol level, Miller was sent via ambulance to Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville for treatment from the crash. But while in route, the complaint says Miller became violent and punched a female paramedic in the face with a closed fist. The other paramedic intervened, and when he did, Miller allegedly choked him and punched him in the arm.

The complaint says police noted swelling on the female paramedic’s face and red marks around her eye.

At the hospital, a test was given, and Miller was found to have had a blood-alcohol level of .26, more than three times the legal limit.

Miller faces one count of fourth-degree assault, which carries a maximum of two years in prison; one count of second degree driving while impaired (with a test refusal), which carries a maximum of one year in jail; and one count of third degree driving while impaired, which has a maximum penalty of one year in jail.

According to the complaint, this isn't Miller's first alcohol-related incident. In January 2009 he was convicted in New York of operating a motor vehicle with .08 percent alcohol or more in his blood.

will follow the case.