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By Sean O'Driscoll
Senior Crime and Courts Reporter
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Kamala Harris' new running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was heavily under the influence of alcohol when he was pulled over by police in 1995, a court transcript obtained by Newsweek shows.
His lawyer told a judge at the time that it was a "bizarre" incident in which Walz fled from a state trooper because he thought someone was chasing him, and eventually pulled over when the officer turned on a siren.
Walz' congressional campaign manager later claimed Walz had a deafness problem at the time and did not understand the officer when stopped. Walz has said previously that he was not drunk at the time.
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Walz failed a field sobriety test and a preliminary breath test, according to the state trooper's report. He was then taken to Chadron Hospital for a blood test and was booked at Dawes County Jail.
He was initially charged with driving under the influence and speeding, but the charges were reduced to a lone count of reckless driving under the terms of a plea deal, according to Alpha News.
Kamala Harris has chosen Walz to be her running mate, hoping he will help increase her slight lead over former president Donald Trump. Walz was the first Democrat to publicly label Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, as "weird"—a narrative that has since been used by the Democrats' campaign.
Walz was working as a teacher in Alliance, Nebraska, when he was pulled over on September 23, 1995 for speeding in a 55-mph zone, according to the online site, Alpha News.
"A strong odor of alcoholic beverage was detected emitting from Mr. Walz['s] breath and person," according to a Nebraska state trooper's report on Walz's arrest.
Walz failed a field sobriety test and a preliminary breath test, according to the state trooper's report. He was then taken to Chadron Hospital for a blood test and was then booked at Dawes County Jail.
He was initially charged with driving under the influence and speeding, but the charges were reduced to a lone count of reckless driving under the terms of a plea deal, according to Alpha News.
Newsweek sought email comment from Walz's office on Tuesday.
In 2006, when Walz was running for Congress in Minnesota, his campaign manager told the Rochester Post Bulletin that he was not drunk at the time of his arrest and "attributed the misunderstanding" between himself and trooper about his sobriety to Walz's deafness.
The campaign manager said that was caused by Walz's time in the National Guard that has since been "surgically corrected," Alpha News noted.
"He couldn't understand what the officer was saying to him," Walz's campaign manager told the Rochester Post Bulletin at the time.
However, neither the court transcript nor the trooper's report mention Walz's hearing problem.
During a court hearing, former Dawes County Attorney Rex Nowlan told a judge that Walz had a blood alcohol concentration of .128 at the time he was stopped.
"Mr. Walz was driving south of town on 385 in Dawes County at a high rate of speed. Actually, he was driving away from the police officer. I think that he eventually hit a speed of over 80, as I recall. When he was stopped, he was given a blood test which did show a .128 blood alcohol," Nowlan said, according to the court transcript obtained by Alpha News.
The state limit was .10 at the time, but now stands at .08.
Walz's attorney, Russell Harford, told the court that Walz had been drinking and had driven away from the state trooper because he "thought somebody was chasing him."
"The state patrol officer turned around and, this is a little, a little bit bizarre, but Mr. Walz thought somebody was chasing him. The officer didn't turn on his red lights and he—and somebody came up real fast behind him and he didn't know what they were doing, so he sped up to try to get away, fearing that somebody was after him," Harford told the court.
"Low and behold, it was a state patrolman that was behind him, so the faster he went, the faster the state patrol officer went. Finally, he did turn on his red lights. The speed was fairly excessive, judge, a lot over the speed limit. I don't even know what was alleged in the complaint, it may have been 90 something.
"Mr. Walz had been—had been drinking, so I think there's a sufficient factual basis, judge, to support the plea," Harford added.
The lone count of reckless driving was accepted, according to Alpha News.
Walz was fined $200 plus court costs, which include the costs of the police alcohol test, according to Newsweek's review of the court transcript.
The judge told Walz that he hoped he would learn from the experience and share it with his students because drinking is a "terrible problem" for teenagers and college students.
Update 06/08/24 11:48 a.m ET: This article was updated to include details of Walz's sentencing and to include a transcript of the hearing.
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