BLOOMINGTON, Minn — In a YouTube video, Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges walked viewers through a case last month where he says a driver recorded himself speeding through the city, the speedometer in the camera's view, at one point revealing a beer in the driver's hand.
"You can see how fast they're driving. This is in a neighborhood. Ninety miles per hour," Hodges narrated. "In a neighborhood. With a beer can."
When the driver reaches Girard Avenue on the video and the road curves, the driver crashes.
"Look at how fast he's driving. Look at how he impacts that tree," Hodges exclaimed.
An unbelted 30-year-old female passenger had to be taken to the hospital with a brain bleed and skull fracture, according to court documents. And 24-year-old Juan Guzman Fraire allegedly got out of the driver's seat "pleading with witnesses not to call police."
When officers arrived, Guzman Fraire allegedly smelled of booze and admitted he drank 12 beers. Bloomington police arrested Guzman, but he was released three days later.
According to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, prosecutors asked police for blood alcohol test results and information about the extent of the passenger's injuries because that information is an element of the charge.
Hodges disagrees with that decision.
"Absent the alcohol results, the criminal vehicular operation here, where he's driving this car and crashes and almost kills this woman, should have been enough to hold him in jail," Hodges said.
Prosecutors charged Guzman Fraire 18 days after the crash after his citing blood alcohol level came back at .195, and in the criminal complaint, they ask for a warrant out of concern for public safety.
But by that point, Guzman Fraire could not be found.
"He should have been not let out. He should have been locked up. But now we need to go find him," Hodges said.
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