Legislature expected to take up DWI regulation in 2025, St. Louis Park senator says

Legislature expected to take up DWI regulation in 2025, St. Louis Park senator says

Legislature expected to take up DWI regulation in 2025, St. Louis Park senator says

As Park Tavern reopened in St. Louis Park on Wednesday, the man charged in a recent deadly crash there made his first appearance in court.

A Hennepin County Court judge set 56-year old Steven Bailey’s bond at $500,000 with conditions.

He faces two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and nine counts of criminal vehicular operation. Prosecutors said his blood alcohol level was around four times the legal limit when he crashed into Park Tavern’s patio on Sunday night.

In an interview on Wednesday, Minnesota Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, said he lived across from Park Tavern for about a decade. Latz, who chairs the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, confirmed DWI prevention will be a topic during the next legislative session.

“This is my haunting ground, and now to see this happen, it’s just heartbreaking,” he said.

Bailey, the man accused of driving his vehicle into the restaurant on Sunday, killing two people and hurting nine others, had five previous DWI convictions from 1985, 1993, 1998, 2014 and 2015.

RELATED: Community remembers victims killed when man drove into Park Tavern patio

In line with Minnesota Department of Public Safety standards for DWI consequences, his license was revoked a handful of times, too.

Those sanctions get more serious as offenses stack up, and by the fourth offense, an interlock device was installed in Bailey’s car for a few years, requiring a breathalyzer to start the engine.

DPS records show that by 2020, he had years of compliance and the interlock device was removed. His license had also been reinstated by the time of the tragic crash on Sunday.

“So when, when you say the license revocation, is that enough? Well, obviously not,” Latz said. “The fact is, we as government, no matter how many laws we pass and no matter how many law enforcement people we put out there, we’re not capable of monitoring every person every second of every day, what they do. Individuals do have responsibility for their own actions.”

Asked if he plans to bring the topic up during the 2025 legislative session, Latz said, “Yeah, I would think we’ll take another look at it. We do periodically.”

“We don’t legislate based on individual cases,” he added. “I think that’s bad in terms of making broad public policy, but certainly, they give us reason to review things and to look at as an example of what made that we can do better.”

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty also enhanced the maximum penalties for the the two criminal vehicular homicide charges filed on Tuesday from 10 to 15 years per count. That’s possible because Bailey’s last prior conviction was within 10 years.