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Janesville Gazette - Janesvill
22 March 2006

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Martin Altstadt

Janesville detective talks abo

Martin Altstadt figured he could get away with it.

As a 27-year veteran of the Janesville Police Department, Altstadt knew that if he left his sports car where it had slid off a snow-slick city street, a colleague at the police department would contact him later in the day and ask if he was all right.

No one had been hurt. Nothing had been damaged.

Other than calling a tow truck, that would have been the end of it-except that Altstadt would be living a lie.

"I knew that if I didn't call it in and walked away, I could duck the whole drunken-driving scene. I also knew I'd have to lie on Monday morning. I wasn't going to do that," Altstadt said.

The Janesville detective talked publicly about his ticket for drunken driving and its repercussions after talking to his colleagues in the department during training sessions on drinking and its potential consequences.

Altstadt and Denny Luster, supervisor of the Rock County Crisis Intervention Unit, gave several presentations so that all employees-sworn and civilian-could see them. Chief Neil Mahan ordered the training as part of the department's response to a series of drunken-driving incidents involving off-duty officers.

The latest case involved Detective James Martin, who was arrested New Year's Day on drunken-driving charges, including causing injury by intoxicated driving. The outcome of an internal police investigation into Martin's case still is pending.

Martin, who pleaded guilty to a blood-alcohol concentration violation in exchange for other charges being dismissed, was the third Janesville officer in 17 months to be ticketed for drunken driving. Lt. Greg Gibbs was cited July 31, 2004; Altstadt was ticketed Feb. 20, 2005.

Altstadt said he offered to talk to his colleagues because police officers are held to higher standards and face consequences that most other people in the community don't face when they're ticketed or arrested for drunken driving.

Additional consequences include internal investigations and suspensions without pay.

"For us, if you handle it incorrectly, it goes to your integrity," Altstadt said. "When a police officer goes to a home on a call, if his integrity is questioned, his authority is questioned. Eventually, the product of his work is questioned."

Altstadt had gone out alone on a Saturday night with no plan other than to have a few beers and probably meet a few friends. It was a mini-celebration of a larger-than-expected income tax refund. He started drinking about 7 p.m. and didn't stop until about 1:30 a.m.-after he had agreed to give someone a ride home.

As he told his colleagues, "I have never paid attention to how many beers I drink, the rate at which I drink. I never kept track."

And Altstadt acknowledged that he had no plan for the night he went out drinking.

"If you don't have a plan ahead of time, you're making a plan with the same brain you've been intoxicating. It's not a good idea," he said. "I had no plan to be out that late. � I didn't plan to go out and get intoxicated that night."

In hindsight, Altstadt said he would "not go multiple hours with just continuing to drink. There would have been breaks. I would also not try to estimate what my blood-alcohol concentration was."

He knows now that his BAC was "way over" the legal limit to drive. It was 0.207, more than twice the legal threshold for intoxication.

Altstadt said he could have walked home because he doesn't live that far from the bar where he was drinking or he could have gotten a ride home.

But, though Altstadt knew he was intoxicated when he left the bar, he had committed to giving someone else a ride. And the drive wasn't that far.

But it was just a short distance from the tavern that Altstadt slid off the road.

"I felt capable of driving the car. In there lies the problem," he said. "You do feel capable, but you're making decisions with an intoxicated brain."

Altstadt didn't want to put his colleagues through the process of tracking him down, and he didn't think he necessarily would get a ticket. After all, it was a simple runoff from a slippery street that he had dutifully reported and in which no one was injured and no damage was done.

But once Janesville police arrived, they could tell Altstadt was drunk. Their system kicked into gear. They called the Wisconsin State Patrol so that another jurisdiction would handle the incident. No breaks were given.

Before the night was over, Altstadt felt angry and humiliated-angry at himself for getting into an avoidable predicament and humiliated because he was handcuffed, put in the back seat of a squad car and processed at the Rock County Jail.

"The only times I've ever been in there is to lock someone up or interview someone who is locked up," he said.

The drunken driving incident has cost Altstadt about $4,200 so far: $900 in attorney's fees, $722 for the fine, $2,200 in lost pay for his 10-day suspension, $225 for mandatory alcohol assessment and $164 for a mandatory driving class.

Furthermore, his car insurance will cost $200 to $225 more per year indefinitely.

And because Altstadt is a cop, his incident was bigger news than most other arrests for drunken driving. It was reported not just in Janesville but also on broadcast outlets in Madison and Milwaukee.

Besides money, the ticket cost Altstadt his liberty. Though not jailed, he had to apply for an occupational license to drive just to and from work, on the job and for a limited number of hours for errands.

He had to keep a log of his driving. Altstadt felt trapped in his home.

"I lost spring, summer and fall. I lost that. It was significant," he said. "You never want to give up control over your life and circumstances, but in a situation like this you do. And it's by your own making."

What Altstadt found was that people who knew and respected him-his children, friends and colleagues-continued to respect and encourage him even though he had made a costly mistake.

"I never before felt like I needed someone to come up and encourage me. It's similar to a close family member dying, but you feel responsible for the death," Altstadt said.

"The thing I've reflected on mostly is that in both my personal and professional life I've enjoyed a good reputation with the people I know. I was concerned that this would cast a shadow on that, and I was concerned with how people would view me after that, particularly my kids.

"I was relieved that most people generally view this as a single incident.

"I think I'm more approachable professionally," Altstadt said. "When you stand up and admit you made an error, people find you more human and find you more approachable.

"If anything good came out of this, it was that I realized you don't have to be perfect to enjoy a good reputation."

And if you want to enjoy a night drinking with friends, have a plan to avoid driving drunk.

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Janesville Gazette - Janesvill22 March 2006

Janesville detective talks abo

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Janesville Gazette - Janesvill
22 March 2006