Portage man charged with 10th alcohol driving offense
A Portage man faces nearly 20 years in prison if he is convicted of a 10th alcohol-related driving offense.
James R. Zinke, 55, of Portage, was ordered held on $1,000 cash bail at an initial hearing Monday in Columbia County Circuit Court.
Zinke is charged with operating with prohibited alcohol concentration as a 10th offense and as a repeater, and with misdemeanor operating a motor vehicle after revocation and bail jumping, both as a repeater.
The charges carry a maximum possible initial prison sentence of 19 years and three months in prison.
It is illegal to drive in Wisconsin with an alcohol concentraion of 0.08 or more for anyone with three or fewer drunken-driving convictions, but the level is lowered to 0.02 for anyone convicted of four or more drunken-driving offenses.
A blood test revealed that Zinke had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.048 percent when he was stopped by a sheriff's deputy Oct. 23 on Highway 127 and Wolfgram Road in the town of Lewiston.
According to a report, Zinke admitted to the deputy that he had been drinking.
Zinke was convicted of eight drunken-driving offenses in the 1990s; he was convicted in April 2008 of felony drunken driving - his ninth conviction - from an incident in August 2007.
In Wisconsin, drunken driving becomes a felony after four convictions.
Zinke was charged in September with operating after revocation as a repeater.
Zinke is scheduled for a pretrial conference Dec. 18.
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