MN Deputy Drunkenly Rolled Squad Car '5 Or 6 Times' On Duty: Police

KANDIYOHI COUNTY, MN — A Kandiyohi County sheriff's deputy is accused of driving his squad car drunk and rolling it over "five or six times" while on duty. The crash left him with non-life threatnening injuries and he was hospitalized.

No one else was injured in the single-car crash.

Christopher T. Flatten, 39, of Atwater was charged last week with third-degree test refusal and fourth-degree DWI. If convicted, he faces up to a year in jail and a $3,000 fine.

On July 18 at about 6:20 p.m., police were dispatched to Gennessee Township on the report of a rolled-over squad car.

The vehicle lost control and rolled multiple times into a nearby field, according to investigators. The driver — a uniformed deputy identified as Flatten — was unresponsive, authorities said.

The 2018 Ford Explorer was found heavily damaged and resting on its passenger side.

State troopers helped Flatten as he was extricated from the vehicle and airlifted from the scene for medical treatment.

A trooper spoke with a man who had been traveling behind Flatten before the crash. The squad car was seen entering U.S. Highway 12 without stopping at the stop sign, according to prosecutors.

The squad was then "all over the road, crossing over the center line by approximately 3/4 of the width of the vehicle, crossing the fog line, and driving onto the grass shoulder of the road," the criminal complaint states.

The squad "continuously swerved and was traveling at speeds faster than 60 mph" before turning southbound on County Road 4, prosecutors said.

A second witness — who was driving eastbound on 1st Avenue towards County Road 4 — saw the squad car go across 1st Avenue and roll at least five times in the ditch, according to police.

There were no other vehicles on the road at the time of the crash.

Officers photographed and painted the scene and concluded that the markings on the shoulder, roads, ditch, and field backed up the witness statements.

The Minnesota State Patrol recieved a search warrant for Flatten's blood and troopers tried to obtain a sample at the hospital where he was being treated. Flatten refused to give a sample, police said, which is a gross misdemean in Minnesota.

Troopers took note of an odor of alcohol from Flatten, along with his slurred speech and bloodshot and glossy eyes, according to the criminal complaint.