Workhouse employee arrested for drunken driving

An official at the Hennepin County workhouse has been cited for drunken driving.

Sigmund Fine, a program manager at the facility, which houses many inmates charged with the same offense, was arrested Nov. 23 after a minor single-car accident in Plymouth.

Fine, 63, was not injured and said he regrets the incident.

"When you're wrong, you're wrong, kid," he said, adding that the accident and arrest have convinced him to pursue sobriety. County officials said he wasn't disciplined and his job isn't in jeopardy.

"It was the Thanksgiving holiday and a bunch of guys got together," Fine said Thursday evening. "What can I say?"

Police arrested him at the accident scene near Interstate 494 and Hwy. 55 at about 6:30 p.m. Barb Cox, a Plymouth Police spokeswoman, said he had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.14 percent, almost twice the 0.08 percent limit for driving.

Fine was traveling north on Zachary Lane and turning onto 53rd Avenue when he hit the curb, left the road, drove up a hill and into a line of trees, Cox said.

"He was very cooperative with us, not argumentative, and didn't try to get off by saying who he was," Cox said.

An officer noticed an odor of alcohol and asked Fine how the accident happened. Fine said he had been at a restaurant and didn't know how the crash occurred. When the officer asked how much Fine had drank, he told him "four or five vodkas," Cox said.

Fine was booked on fourth-degree drunken driving, the least serious form of the offense.

Carolyn Marinan, spokeswoman for Hennepin County, said Fine has worked in various positions in Community Corrections for 30 years and has been a good employee.

Fine pleaded not guilty to the drunken driving citation and is scheduled for a jury trial in February. The arrest has brought him more empathy toward those jailed at the workhouse, he said.

"I believe that I'll be a little bit more sensitive to people's issues and how people get in difficulties," Fine said.

Joy Powell • 612-673-7750