Story Created:
Aug 21, 2008
Story Updated:
Aug 21, 2008
Man Charged With 7th OWI Pleads Not Guilty
Heather Shannon
Katie DeLong
PEWAUKEE - A Pewaukee man charged with drunk driving for the seventh time appeared in court Thursday on deadly drunk driving charges.
He pled not guilty to killing an Elm Grove man.
Daniel Henningsen is charged with his seventh drunk driving offense. The criminal complaint says he wasn't supposed to be driving in the first place, since his license was revoked.
Forty-two year old Henningsen was wheeled in to his preliminary hearing by a Waukesha County sheriff's deputy. He was severely injured when police say he drove into the car carrying 51-year-old William Gray, and his wife and sister-in-law. Gray died instantly. The women were injured, but survived.
The accident happened on August 1st on Capitol Drive in Brookfield.
The criminal complaint says Henningsen had a blood alcohol level of .19, more than twice the legal limit. He also did not have a valid driver's license.
"He had been given an occupational license, but he had been driving outside his hours,” Henningsen’s Attorney, Daniel Fay said.
"So he was not supposed to be on the road at that time?" said TODAY'S TMJ4 reporter Heather Shannon.
"No. That's correct,” Fay said.
A medical examiner's report shows Gray was also drunk at the time of the crash. His blood alcohol level was over two and a half times the legal limit.
“He didn't stop at the stop sign, tried to cross Capitol Drive, and was proceeding at about 10 miles per hour across the traffic,” Fay said.
Although Henningsen's attorney says Gray did pull out too slowly into oncoming traffic, the criminal complaint says Henningsen was driving 20 miles over the speed limit.
Henningsen waived the reading of the criminal complaint, pled not guilty and will now go to trial for homicide while driving drunk.
Henningsen is being held at the Waukesha County Jail on a $1 million dollars cash bail.