MONROE — A judge denied a Monroe man’s attempt to have his seventh drunk driving charge thrown out of court on the basis of an unlawful traffic stop.

Robert J. Field, 63, is due back in court Sept. 22 for a pre-trial conference. He faces charges of seventh-offense operating while intoxicated and operating with a prohibited blood-alcohol concentration, both Class F felonies.

The case stems from a traffic stop in the 700 block of 8th Street at 2:50 a.m. July 6, 2019.

During a hearing Aug. 4, Field’s attorney argued that a Monroe police officer did not have reasonable suspicion to stop Field.

The officer, Corp. Scott Fields, was called in to testify. The court also viewed dashcam and body camera footage from the traffic stop.

The dashcam video shows the officer headed eastbound on 8th Street behind Field. After the road crosses 7th Avenue/Wisconsin 69, it gradually narrows from two lanes to one. Field can be seen beginning to turn left onto 7th Avenue at the intersection, veering slightly out of his lane, then changing his mind and continuing straight. Once across 7th Avenue, his truck straddled the dotted line before the lanes merged.

William Ginsberg, the defense attorney, said that “driving over lane dividers where you can see that the lane goes from two to one” is normal.

“To center yourself is just not a violation of the law. You do not get to take people’s money for that,” Ginsberg said. He noted that Field was driving at a constant speed in a straight line and not impeding traffic behind him.

Ginsberg asked the officer if it is common for drivers to straddle the dotted line along this stretch of 8th Street before the eastbound lanes merge.

Corp. Fields responded, “I can only comment on what happened in front of me. He was straddling the broken line well before the lanes merge into one.”

It was at this point that the officer turned on his lights signaling for Field to pull over. Field pulled into the old Kwik Trip parking lot across from 10th Avenue Court, now an auto dealership.

In the bodycam video, the officer approaches Field’s truck and asks, “Do you know why I stopped you today?”

“Why?” Field responds.

“That’s what I’m asking you,” the officer said.

Field later had his blood drawn, showing a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.244%, according to court records. This is more than three times the legal limit of 0.08% for driving.

Assistant District Attorney Laura Kohl said Field’s driving behavior was not normal and that the video evidence shows him “not getting back into the left lane where he should have been all along” after the intersection.

Judge Ellen Berz agreed and denied the motion to suppress evidence from the traffic stop.

“I do find that the law enforcement officer had reasonable suspicion to stop the vehicle,” she said. Field was “going quite frankly all over the road” and “this is just almost typical drunken driving behavior.”

Field was convicted of his most recent OWI, his sixth, in Green County in 2002. Court records indicate his blood-alcohol level at the time was more than 0.25%. Judge James Beer sentenced him to one year in jail and four years on probation.

If convicted in his latest OWI case, he faces three to 12.5 years in prison and up to $25,000 in fines. Imprisonment is required by law for seventh-offense OWI convictions.