Bail set at $100,000

For the third time in nine months, a Powell man has been arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.

On Thursday — while he was out on bond for two DUI charges from 2016 — Jason A. Kretschmar was pulled over on Coulter Avenue. Powell police say they found methamphetamine in Kretschmar’s pocket and an intoxicating amount of alcohol in his system.

The Park County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has charged Kretschmar with a felony count of driving while under the influence of alcohol for a fourth or subsequent time in 10 years — court records say it would be his fifth DUI conviction in three years — and misdemeanor counts of driving with a suspended license, driving without a required ignition interlock device, no valid registration and possession of a controlled substance.

Prosecutors are also seeking to revoke the 34-year-old’s bond from the prior two cases.

“Obviously, Mr. Kretschmar presents a severe danger to the public,” Deputy Park County Attorney Tim Blatt said at a Friday morning hearing, arguing for Kretschmar’s bail on the new charges to be set at $100,000 cash.

Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters agreed, while remarking that $100,000 cash “might be the highest bond I’ve ever set on a DUI.”

Blatt said that, over the objection of the prosecution, District Court Judge Steven Cranfill had lowered Kretschmar’s bond from $25,000 to $5,000 in the pending DUI cases earlier this year — allowing him to undergo surgical treatment for injuries he sustained when he crashed in one of last year’s incidents. Kretschmar has been free on the $5,000 bond since Jan. 12; he described it as a medical furlough.

“And while on furlough, you managed to get yourself a new felony charge. Is that the gist of it?” Waters asked Kretschmar last week.

“Pretty much,” Kretschmar responded. “Not real bright.”

Powell Police Sgt. Chad Miner had spotted Kretschmar driving around midday Thursday and, knowing his license had been revoked, pulled him over in the Shopko parking lot.

When Miner began speaking with Kretschmar, the officer smelled alcohol on his breath; police also found one empty and one full beer can in the cab of his Chevy pickup, Miner wrote in an affidavit filed in support of the charges.

Kretschmar would later take a breath test and register a blood alcohol content of 0.12 percent — above the legal driving limit of 0.08 percent, the affidavit says.

Meanwhile, a plastic bag carrying roughly 1.9 grams of a pink powdery substance was found in Kretschmar’s left pocket. It tested presumptive positive as meth, Miner wrote.

Police say Kretschmar had one prior DUI conviction in 2007 and two in 2014. He was arrested for drunk driving in Powell last July. After making bail for that charge, he was arrested again in August after crashing into a drainage ditch along Wyo. Highway 295 north of Powell while drunk.

Kretschmar indicated in court that, before last week’s arrest, he was on track to receive a stipulated three- to five-year prison sentence in connection with last year’s DUI charges.

“Is there some kind of deal we can make, if I plead guilty to the [Thursday] DUI?” Kretschmar asked Blatt, the prosecutor, in court on Friday.

Waters interrupted, noting that defendants cannot enter pleas to felony charges in circuit court — having to wait until their case reaches district court.

“I just wanted to plead out today so I can get this show on the road,” Kretschmar said.

“Not going to happen,” said Waters.

Kretschmar will be assigned a court-appointed attorney, with a preliminary hearing in circuit court tentatively scheduled for Friday.