ST. CLOUD - A Stearns County judge on Tuesday sentenced a 43-year-old St. Joseph man to probation and ordered him to complete a substance abuse treatment program for admitting to drinking before a tubing incident that inured two 9-year-old boys in July.
Stearns County man sentenced to probation for tubing incident that injured two boys
The St. Joseph man must complete a substance abuse treatment program and use an ignition interlock device.
January 17, 2024 at 7:34PM
Ryan J. Willis was charged with four felony counts and two misdemeanor counts following the incident on Watab Lake, just north of St. Joseph.
According to court documents, Stearns County deputies were dispatched to a report of a watercraft incident just before 5 p.m. July 8, where Willis told deputies he was pulling the two boys on a tube behind a water scooter when he got too close to the shore and the tube hit a neighbor's dock, documents state.
One of the boys was airlifted to a children's hospital and reportedly suffered a skull fracture with a large laceration on his head, a bruised lung and bruising on his body; the other child was brought to St. Cloud Hospital for pain and a possible concussion.
A field sobriety test showed indicators of impairment and a preliminary breath test showed Willis had an alcohol concentration of 0.148%; results received from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension showed his blood alcohol concentration was 0.156%, documents state. The legal blood alcohol concentration limit for operating a motor vehicle, including watercraft, is 0.08%.
In November, Willis pleaded guilty to two felony counts of criminal vehicular operation as part of a plea agreement. On Tuesday, Judge Mary Mahler sentenced him to 20 days in Stearns County jail, but stayed the sentence, meaning he can serve it using an alcohol-sensitive electronic monitoring device at his home and be allowed to leave for work and alcohol abuse recovery meetings.
He will also be placed on supervised probation for four years, the terms of which include not using alcohol, completing a treatment program and using an ignition interlock device. His attorney, Harry Burns, declined to comment on the case.
Watch some of the best plays from NSPN.tv’s coverage of games from across the state.
