MARSHFIELD, Wis. - How do you become a celebrity? How about being charged with drunken driving while you and a friend are trying to drive the same pickup truck home. It worked for two men, Harvey Miller, 43, and Edwin Marzinske, 55.
"I always thought I'd be famous, just not this way," said Miller, a paraplegic who was steering a pickup truck with Marzinske on the gas pedal and brakes when they were stopped on a Friday night in August. "Pretty much everywhere we go it's people coming up, 'Hey, can we get our pictures with you? Can we get your autograph?'" he said Wednesday. "We never expected this to escalate."
The news also got twisted somewhat, the men said, blaming it in part on a Colby-Abbotsford police report said Miller had no legs. He has his legs but a logging accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. A message left for the police department wasn't immediately returned Thursday.
Both were cited for drunken driving and driving while revoked. They're planning to defend themselves in court with an argument that neither had control, so neither was driving.
Miller blew a 0.16 percent blood alcohol reading on the breath test and Marzinske was at 0.09 percent, the police report said. The legal limit is .08 percent.
Miller said he takes drunken driving seriously, "but we were doing things as safe as possible." Police clocked them going 35 mph in a 55 zone.
Marzinske acknowledged the arrest was embarrassing. "I asked my daughter right out, 'Are you embarrassed about this?'" he said. "She says, 'A little bit Dad, but it sure is funny.' So we just have fun with it. There isn't much else you can do."
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