Persistent DWI offender catches new charge

Lance Daellenbach, born in 1968, of Gainesville, is facing a felony driving while intoxicated charge involving an April 25 incident. 

According to the probable cause statement, prepared by MSHP C. Hogue, at 7:24 p.m. April 25, the officer responded to a single vehicle crash on Highway 160, west of the Tecumseh park entrance after the crash was called into MSHP dispatch.

“When I arrived on scene, I was contacted by paramedics and first responders who advised the male driver was intoxicated, and he had stated he knew he was going to jail,” Hogue’s report says. 

Hogue determined that Daellenbach was traveling westbound on Highway 160 in a 2012 Hyundai Elantra when he failed to negotiate a curve, resulting in the Hyundai skidding clockwise off the right side of the road where it overturned and came to rest on its top. A woman who was riding as a passenger in the vehicle was uninjured. 

Hogue said he found Daellenbach and began to speak with him. His report says he noticed that the man’s eyes were bloodshot and glassy, his speech slurred at times and he smelled strongly of alcohol.

Due to those observations, Hogue said he asked Daellenbach to take field sobriety tests, but he refused. 

“Based on my training and experience with intoxicated drivers, I arrested Mr. Daellenbach for DWI... I placed him in the front passenger seat of my patrol car, and I secured him with a seat belt. I transported Mr. Daellenbach, without incident, to the Ozark County Jail,” Hogue wrote. 

Once at the jail, the officer began a 15 minute observation period and read him his implied consent. 

“[He] stated he may need to talk to a lawyer. I gave Mr. Daellenbach his cell phone, and I advised him he had 20 minutes to contact an attorney. I asked Mr. Daellenbach if he needed any assistance in locating a number for an attorney, and he stated that he was just stalling for time, and he would get a public defender later,” the report says. 

After 20 minutes, Hogue read the implied consent, and Daellenbach reportedly agreed to provide a chemical breath sample. The result was .193%, nearly two and a half times the legal limit in Missouri. 

Daellenbach was released to his son after he was processed, and the vehicle was towed from the scene by Duke’s Towing. A computer check showed that Daellenbach’s driver’s license was revoked by three different revocations with the most recent being a 5-year denial on March 10, 2017. The check also showed that Daellenbach had two prior DWI convictions in Ozark County.

It is the prior convictions that have resulted in the elevated DWI charge, which is normally charged as a misdemeanor.