Waukesha Man Faces 7th OWI Charge After Search for Fast Food

A Waukesha man is facing his seventh operating while intoxicated charge after he was pulled over last week while going to get food at McDonald’s.

Henry Hall, 42, was charged in Waukesha County Circuit Court on June 27 with seventh offense OWI. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.

Hall is scheduled to appear in court Thursday on the drunken driving charge.

According to the criminal complaint, at 12:05 a.m. June 26, officers were called to Highway 164 and Arcadian Avenue on reports of a drunken driver. After finding the vehicle, an officer followed it and found it was registered to Hall, who had six previous OWI convictions.

After pulling the vehicle over, the complaint states Hall said he had consumed “one or two” beers prior to driving and had left to go to McDonald’s for some food. When asked to step out of the vehicle and perform field sobriety tests, he refused, saying the officer should take him to jail because he had been arrested for OWI before and didn’t want to give the officer more evidence, according to the complaint.

He then agreed to take the tests, but the complaint states he told the officer he wouldn’t be able to recite the alphabet because he “is not that smart” and also said he couldn’t count backwards from 67 to 54.

The officer realized Hall wouldn’t complete the exercises so he placed him under arrest. Hall, who had a blood alcohol level of 0.25 at the time of the incident, then told the officer he had drank six to eight Milwaukee’s Best Ice beers at home prior to driving.

Hall was previously convicted of OWI in 1989, 1992, 1996, 2002, 2003 and 2006. He’s currently being held in Waukesha County Jail on $20,000 cash bail.