Keith Lance

Authorities allege a Powell man drunkenly drove through the Willwood area last week, running into multiple mailboxes and starting two small fires with his damaged vehicle.

Keith B. Lance, 58, is facing misdemeanor counts of hit-and-run property damage, interference with a peace officer, having an open container of alcohol in a moving vehicle and driving while under the influence of alcohol; it’s alleged to have been Lance’s third DUI within the past decade, meaning he would face at least 30 days in jail if convicted.

Lance pleaded not guilty to the charges at a Friday appearance in Park County Circuit Court. He remained in custody on Monday, with bail set at $10,000, according to jail records.

An area resident reported Lance’s erratic driving around 12:30 p.m. Thursday. The caller told dispatchers with the Park County Sheriff’s Office he’d tried to get the driver to stop — as the vehicle had a flat tire — but was unable to do so. The damaged Toyota sedan, he said, had started multiple fires.

The Powell Volunteer Fire Department was summoned to the scene and found two places were burning: one on Whitetail Road and another in the area of Road 13, said Powell Fire Chief Dustin Dicks; he guessed that less than a quarter of an acre of land burned before firefighters put out the flames.

Meanwhile, Lance reportedly swerved into several mailboxes in the 1600 block of Lane 14 before eventually parking in a driveway in the 1100 block of Lane 13. 

When Park County Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Ivanoff arrived at the scene, he found rut marks leading to Lance’s Toyota. Ivanoff noticed extensive damage to the side of the sedan and found the front passenger tire was completely missing.

“It was obvious that the driver had driven and the tire ripped off before being parked at this location,” Ivanoff wrote in an affidavit.

Lance, who was found sitting in the driver’s seat with the keys in the ignition, did not answer questions about what had happened and his speech “was completely slurred,” Ivanoff wrote.

“When Keith Lance did speak to me, he used profanity ..,” the deputy wrote, listing a specific, sexually explicit comment Lance made. “He then said over and over, ‘I’m going to smack you.’”

Lance smelled strongly of alcohol, had glassy, bloodshot eyes and he acknowledged drinking, Ivanoff said. The deputy would later find a half-empty bottle of Jagermeister in the Toyota.

Ivanoff said he and another deputy had to pull the uncooperative Lance out of the vehicle and then found the suspect “was unable to stand on his own without us holding him up.” When Lance was later taken to Powell Valley Hospital, he still could not walk on his own and had to be placed in a wheelchair, the affidavit says.

Officials took a blood sample from Lance to test the level of alcohol in his system, because he “was in no condition to provide a breath sample,” Ivanoff wrote.

He said Lance appeared to have prior convictions in 2013 and 2016.

A trial in the case is tentatively scheduled for April 22.