Hopkins Police Arrest Repeat Drunken Driver for Refusing Alcohol Tests

A Minnetonka man has been charged with refusing to submit to blood and breath tests after police say he was driving drunk in Hopkins, according to charging documents filed Monday.

Peter James Trumble, 43, is charged with first-degree driving while impaired/refusal to submit to a chemical test, a felony with a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $14,000 fine. The charge carries a mandatory minimum penalty of three years in prison.

According to the criminal complaint, signed by Hopkins Police Sgt. Raymond Laudenbach, police were alerted to a possibly drunken driver the driver left on July 20. They spotted him shortly afterward at the intersection of Shady Oak Road and Highway 7.

Police approached the vehicle and spoke to the driver, later identified as Trumble, who smelled like alcohol and who had bloodshot, watery eyes, according to the complaint. When police asked to see his driver’s license, Trumble appeared confused and asked his passenger to find the license, the complaint says.

Trumble was asked to step out of his car and tried unsuccessfully to perform field sobriety tests, according to Laudenbach’s account. Police asked him to submit to a preliminary breath test, but he refused and was arrested.

Police took Trumble to the station, where he refused to answer questions or obey officers’ commands to stay seated. He was put into a cell and asked again if he would submit to testing. He refused, according to the complaint.

Officers provided telephone books to Trumble so he could consult an attorney, but he ignored them. He also ignored officers’ requests for him to submit to breath, blood and urine tests, the complaint charges.

Trumble’s criminal record includes four alcohol-related driving convictions—including one in 2004 in Wisconsin and two in 2008, one in Wisconsin and one in Hennepin County.

Trumble remains in the Hennepin County Jail on a $40,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled Aug. 29 in Hennepin County District Court.

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