Sartell City Council member arrested on suspicion of drunken driving

A Sartell City Council member was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving three days after being sworn in for his first term.

Rustin J. Deters, 43, of Sartell was charged in mid-January with one gross misdemeanor count of refusing to submit to a breath test and one misdemeanor count of driving while intoxicated.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Sherburne County District Court, the Minnesota State Patrol received two reports on Jan. 16 about a white Chevy Traverse “consistently crossing the center lane and the fog line.”

A trooper located the vehicle on Hwy. 10 in Becker Township and watched as it “crossed over the lane lines, fog line, and rumble strip multiple times” before the trooper initiated a traffic stop, the complaint states.

The trooper reported that Deters’ speech and movements were slow and that he had bloodshot eyes and a slight odor of alcohol, the complaint states. After allegedly displaying indicators of impairment on field sobriety tests and blowing a 0.13 on the preliminary breath test, he was arrested. Minnesota’s blood alcohol content limit for driving is 0.08%.

When asked to complete an official breath test at the jail, Deters “provided multiple short bursts of breath … despite [the trooper] telling him to take one long breath,” the complaint states.

The trooper reportedly told Deters that if he failed to comply a second time, it would constitute a refusal; he “did not follow the trooper’s instructions, and the machine showed a deficient result again,” the complaint states.

Deters did not return a request for comment. He was elected to the Sartell City Council in November and took office Jan. 13.