THEODORE TSCHANNEN

CRYSTAL FALLS — An Iron River Township man is headed to prison for injuring a Watersmeet woman in a traffic crash last year when he had a blood-alcohol content more than three times the legal limit.

Iron County Trial Court Judge C. Joseph Schwedler on Monday put the sentence for 63-year-old Theodore Walter Tschannen Jr. just above the county jail threshold of one year by ordering he serve a minimum of a year and a day to a maximum of five years.

“The community has to hear a message that’s loud and clear,” the judge told Tschannen. “If you drive drunk and someone gets hurt, you go to prison.”

Michigan sentencing guidelines placed Tschannen’s suggested minimum sentence in the five- to 23-month range.

Tschannen previously had pleaded no contest to felony operating while intoxicated causing serious injury.

He was driving a pickup truck out of his driveway onto U.S. 2 near Gibbs City Road about 1 p.m. Nov. 13 when he struck a westbound car on the highway, Iron County deputies said in their initial news release.

Tschannen told deputies the car had been coming over a hill and he did not see it, according to a portion of the police report read in court.

He also admitted to drinking whiskey, the report stated. Although court documents put his blood-alcohol content at the time at .308, an official blood draw cited in the police report showed a BAC of .277.

The Watersmeet woman driving the car had to be extricated with the Jaws of Life before EMS personnel transported her to Aspirus Iron River Hospital and later airlifted her to Aspirus Wausau Hospital, the release stated.

She had serious injuries that included several fractures, according to the police report.

This was Tschannen’s fourth operating while intoxicated conviction, Iron County Prosecutor Melissa Powell told the court Monday. The only way to keep the community safe from him is to put him behind bars, she said.

Defense attorney Geoffrey Lawrence argued for a county jail sentence or alcohol tether program instead of prison, noting Tschannen’s last conviction was 10 years ago. Tschannen is remorseful and knows he is lucky the woman’s injuries weren’t more serious, Lawrence added.

Tschannen will get credit for 19 days already served in the Iron County Jail. He also faces a civil lawsuit, Powell said.