Milwaukee pedestrian killed, Astor and Ogden; driver charged
Scene at Astor and Ogden, Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE - Prosecutors have now charged a man in connection to a crash that killed a Milwaukee pedestrian this summer.
In Court:
Court records show 59-year-old Roland Kuenn of Pewaukee is charged with two felonies for homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle. He appeared in court on Wednesday and posted $7,500 cash bond.
According to a criminal complaint, investigators reviewed Kuenn's driving record and determined he was "adjudicated guilty of operating while intoxicated" in Waukesha County in 1998.
Astor and Ogden crash
The backstory:
Police were called to the scene at Astor and Ogden around 6:40 p.m. on July 9. Officers arrived and found the victim, who officials have identified as 62-year-old Gregory Skaar, unresponsive on the ground with "severe" head injuries.
A criminal complaint states Skaar died at a hospital hours later, and an autopsy determined he died of blunt force trauma to the head.
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The driver who hit Skaar, identified in court filings as Kuenn, remained at the scene. Prosecutors said he told police he stopped at a stop sign at the intersection and hit the victim as he began to pull forward. Court filings said he also admitted he had "consumed multiple alcoholic beverages at multiple Brady St. area bars" before the crash.
An officer with MPD's Crash Reconstruction Unit conducted standardized field sobriety tests and "did not observe any clues of impairment," per the complaint, but did smell alcohol on Kuenn's breath. Kuenn "provided his consent for a blood sample."
Police collected video evidence from the southwest corner of the intersection. Court filings said the video showed Kuenn's Toyota driving westbound on Ogden Avenue and slow down slightly before continuing through a stop sign at the Astor Street intersection. It then showed the car "accelerate and strike" Skaar as he crossed the street on the east side of the intersection.
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According to prosecutors, the video "affirmatively shows" Kuenn did not stop at the stop sign and "accelerated just prior" to hitting Skaar.
Court filings said Kuenn's blood sample was collected around 9 p.m. that night, "approximately 2 hours and 23 minutes" after the crash. A state crime lab analyst determined the sample had a BAC of 0.079.
The crime lab analyst then, according to the complaint, "conducted a retrograde extrapolation calculation to determine what the defendant’s blood alcohol content would have been at the time of the collision" and determined Kuenn's BAC at the time of the crash would have been "between 0.102 and 0.138."
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The Source: FOX6 News referenced information from the Milwaukee Police Department, Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office, Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office and Wisconsin Circuit Court.