Ted Mondale booked on suspected DWI

Ted Mondale
Ted Mondale, former state senator, gubernatorial candidate and Metropolitan Council chair. He is the son of former Vice President Walter Mondale.
MPR file photo

(AP) - Ted Mondale, the former state senator and one-time DFL candidate for governor, was booked early Wednesday on suspicion of drunken driving.

Mondale said he went to a Twins game Tuesday night and then to dinner with friends downtown, drinking a couple of beers at the game and wine with his meal.

"I'm guilty," he said. "Whatever the punishment, I'm going to obviously accept it and never do that again."

Mondale, 49, said a State Patrol trooper stopped him on westbound Interstate 394 between Penn Avenue North and Highway 100 as he headed to his St. Louis Park home. The trooper told him he was speeding and then asked whether he had been drinking, Mondale said.

Mondale, the son of former Vice President Walter Mondale, said he admitted to drinking, took field sobriety tests and was taken to the Hennepin County jail.

On the advice of his attorney, Mondale said he refused to take a blood-alcohol test at the jail.

He was booked at 1:48 a.m., posted bail and was discharged about 4 a.m. He was expected to appear in court May 23.

Mondale, who has no previous arrests, said he didn't dispute his impairment with the trooper. "I made an error in judgment," he said. "I shouldn't have got in my car."

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Volume Button
Volume
Now Listening To Livestream
MPR News logo
On Air
MPR News