WINONA, Minn. — The Winona Post reviewed hundreds of Winona County drunken-driving cases from 2023 to determine whether the county’s chief prosecutor, Karin Sonneman, goes lightly on local Big Shots. Reporter Gabriel Hathaway, who conducted the exhaustive study, found no evidence of favoritism. Hathaway’s investigative journalism was prompted by the arrest of City Council member George Borzyskowski in November. Sonneman dropped two DWI charges against Borzskowski. Then in February the city’s community development director, Lucy McMartin, was arrested for drunken driving. Sonneman dropped that charge too. Both Borzyskowski and McMartin tested for blood alcohol in the range of 0.08% to 0.09% — barely into the state-defined level of inebriation. Hathaway found 12 similar barely drunk cases, these all involving ordinary blokes and gals. Those charges were also dropped, which suggests an evenness – not favoritism – in Sonneman’s judgment calls. The only exceptions, Hathaway noted, had aggravating complications, like test refusal, property damage, or drug possession. Hathaway noted in footnote-like detail that two other somewhat similar cases were still in process with hearings and trials. In three other cases, Hathaway said, there were convictions on one DWI charge while a second DWI charge was dropped. Generally when a DWI charge was dropped, as with Borzyskowski ad McMartin, it was in exchange for a guilty plea to a lesser charge like reckless driving.
