MPD sergeant charged in drunken-driving crash

A Milwaukee police sergeant was driving drunk off duty when he crashed into a Milwaukee Water Works truck, injuring the people inside and flipping his own vehicle, prosecutors say.

Garett Strache, 45, faces felony charges of operating while intoxicated causing injury and operating with a prohibited blood-alcohol level, both second offenses. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Wednesday.

Strache was arrested after Milwaukee police were called to a two-vehicle crash at North 80th Street and West Hampton Avenue shortly after 3 a.m. Jan. 10.

Officers arrived to find a man stuck inside a Dodge Durango on its side in the street and a city water truck in the grass.

Members of the Milwaukee Fire Department got the man, later identified as Strache, out of the truck and officers noted an odor of alcohol from his breath, according to the criminal complaint.

Strache was taken to a hospital where his blood was drawn and showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.19 — more than twice the level considered proof of intoxication in Wisconsin, the complaint says.

The Water Works truck driver told police the other vehicle “came out of nowhere,” hit the city truck and then flipped at least three times before landing on its side, according to the complaint. His passenger told police they were on their way to repair a fire hydrant when the Durango slammed into them.

The city truck driver suffered a bulging disk requiring spinal injections and had not returned to work as of mid-March. His passenger was diagnosed with a concussion and whiplash, according to the complaint.

Strache joined the Milwaukee Police Department in 2000 and was paid $137,045 in 2017, city salary records show. More than $40,000 was overtime pay. He has a prior drunken-driving conviction from 1994.