By Shereen Siewert
A 55-year-old Wausau man is facing his fifth drunken driving charge after he allegedly left a town of Marathon bar with a 14-year-old boy and crashed into a parked vehicle.
Police say video footage from Charlie’s Bar, 144746 County Hwy. N, showed Douglas J. Schara driving in reverse on Hwy. N and narrowly avoiding a passing U-Haul, then backing over a ditch and into a GMC Sierra before leaving the scene. The crash was reported at about 1:45 p.m. on Sept. 26, shortly after Schara was in the bar with a young boy for lunch.
The bartender told police Schara was intoxicated when he entered the bar and was served a single, watered-down drink with his meal. The boy, who is not related to Schara, told police he was doing yard work with Schara before they stopped for lunch, according to the police report.
Police caught up with Schara a short time later driving on a nearby road. A preliminary breath test showed Schara had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.158 percent, according to the police report, which is more than seven times the 0.02 percent limit imposed on him due to his prior OWI convictions.
Schara faces charges of fifth offense OWI with a passenger younger than 16 and operating with a revoked license. During an initial appearance Tuesday, Circuit Judge Greg Huber ordered Schara held on a $5,000 cash bond and to maintain absolute sobriety from alcohol.
His most recent OWI conviction was in 2015, according to court records, when a Portage County judge sentenced him to 90 days in jail and two years of probation.
A preliminary hearing is set for Oct. 7 at the Marathon County Courthouse.
