Former Hennepin County sheriff candidate cited for DWI

A former Hennepin County sheriff candidate was booked last month in Minneapolis for driving while under the influence, arrest records show.

Jai Nicholas Hanson, 38, was pulled over shortly after 5 a.m. by the Airport Police Department near 13th Avenue South for a traffic stop. A citation shows his blood-alcohol content was 0.12 at the time of his arrest.

Hanson was booked and released by the Airport Police Department and was subsequently charged with three separate counts of misdemeanor driving while intoxicated.

Hanson, a current officer with the Bloomington Police Department, ran to replace former Sheriff Dave Hutchinson, who got into a drunken-driving crash in a county-owned SUV in December 2021. Hanson finished third in the 2022 primary election and did not advance to the runoff.

“Jai has served the people of Minnesota as a police officer for two decades very honorably, and we’ll deal with these allegations when we go to court,” Hanson’s attorney, Ryan Garry, said.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has reached out to the Bloomington Police Department for comment but has yet to hear back.