Wisconsin woman charged in crash

Published 3:58 pm Saturday, July 12, 2014

ST. PAUL — A Wisconsin woman was driving drunk with her three young children when her minivan flipped onto its side, leaving her 8-year-old son with bloody facial injuries, according to charges filed in Minnesota.

Christal Jean Luellen, 34, was charged Friday in Ramsey County court with five criminal counts, including criminal vehicular operation, endangering a child and driving while impaired, reports said. Online court records didn’t list a defense attorney for Luellen on Saturday.

She was given a breath test at the scene that registered a blood-alcohol content of 0.176 percent, or twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent, prosecutors said.

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Luellen told investigators she’d had five alcoholic beverages at a St. Paul bar on Thursday night. She said she then drove to her aunt’s house, but had an argument and left with her children — a 4-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 8 and 12.

A State Patrol trooper found the minivan on its side Friday about 2:30 a.m. The 8-year-old was bleeding heavily from a facial injury. The other two children weren’t hurt.

Witnesses told investigators Luellen ran a red light and rolled her vehicle.

Luellen acknowledged to the trooper that she’d had too much to drink and shouldn’t be driving, the complaint said.

She was being held in the Ramsey County jail Saturday in lieu of $20,000 bail.