Former statewide DFL candidate Hubert "Buck" Humphrey IV, the grandson of the late Hubert Humphrey and the son of the former Minnesota attorney general, pleaded guilty Monday to drunken driving in his fourth case of driving under the influence.
Politician-lobbyist 'Buck' Humphrey pleads guilty to drunken driving
Sentence includes time on a work crew, ignition lock and probation.
January 9, 2018 at 12:21AM
Humphrey, 48, of Plymouth, entered his plea in Hennepin County District Court and was sentenced at the same time.
Judge Mel Dickstein gave Humphrey a term of 90 days in the workhouse, stayed all but 10 of those days and gave him credit for the day he was jailed upon his arrest in Brooklyn Park.
The remaining nine days will have Humphrey on what is called "sentence to serve," meaning time on a community improvement project such as being on a work crew in a park or other public area.
He will also be on unsupervised probation for two years. Conditions include completing a drunken-driving assessment, no driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and enrolling in a vehicle ignition interlock program. He was ordered to pay more than $1,100 in fines and fees.
Humphrey was jailed Oct. 4 and initially charged with two counts of third-degree driving under the influence of alcohol. The plea included dropping one of the counts.
Humphrey caught the attention of the State Patrol about 1:35 a.m. by speeding on Hwy. 610 near Zane Avenue, a Patrol spokeswoman said. The trooper detected a smell of alcohol and saw that Humphrey's eyes were bloodshot and watery. Humphrey said he had two beers before driving.
Humphrey failed a field sobriety test, and a preliminary breath test at the scene measured his blood alcohol content at 0.106 percent. Nearly 90 minutes later, another breath sample measured 0.08 percent.
His driving history in Minnesota includes a drunken-driving conviction in 2012.
In 2002, when Humphrey ran for secretary of state, rivals called attention to his two drunken-driving arrests in Washington, D.C., one in 1993 and one in 1994. Humphrey replied that in one case, he was required to attend a safe-driving class and the other lacked evidence to prosecute.
Buck Humphrey lost the secretary of state race by 3 percentage points to Republican Mary Kiffmeyer.
Buck Humphrey is the son of Hubert Humphrey III, the state's attorney general from 1983 to 1999.
He was state director for Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, and he did the same for Hillary Clinton in 2008.
More recently, he has worked as a political lobbyist.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
