Buff only slightly tarnished

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This article was published 14/09/2011 (5195 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Jets all-star defenceman Dustin Byfuglien will be in training camp when it opens Saturday despite legal issues he’s facing in his home state of Minnesota.

“I don’t think there will be any problems,” Byfuglien’s agent Ben Hankinson told the Free Press in an exclusive interview Tuesday afternoon. “It’s always a delicate issue when dealing with cross-border immigration issues. He was in Winnipeg on Monday to look after some things and get settled. He’ll report on Thursday and be ready for meetings and testing on Friday to start the season.”

Byfuglien, after being stopped on his boat for running without any lights on Lake Minnetonka, passed a breathalyzer test but was then arrested for refusing to give police a urine sample.

Lake Minnetonka Conservation district attorney Steve Tallen has said the case will proceed. Hennepin County sheriff’s office will formally lay the charge, likely to be completed within the next month.

Byfuglien, 26, was arrested Aug. 31 for “probable cause” and spent three hours in custody before he was released.

“The sheriff’s patrol officer, based on observations of Dustin, asked Dustin to take a preliminary breath test. The results of the preliminary breath test are not admissible in court and can only be used to substantiate further investigation. Dustin was cooperative and provided a sample of his breath and it came back at .03. That’s about a beer and a half in his system,” the player’s lawyer Mitch Robinson told the Free Press. “The legal limit in Minnesota is .08. So he’s well under the legal limit.”

Robinson said Byfuglien was then placed under arrest and taken downtown.

“For whatever reason the officer felt he needed further chemical tests from Dustin. So he took Dustin into custody, placed him under arrest and transported him to the sheriff’s department and then asked him to take a urine test,” said Robinson. “In Minnesota, it’s a crime to refuse to take a test when lawfully requested by a police officer to do so. Dustin had received bad advice and the advice he had previously received was to never take a test. That’s bad advice. He refused to take the test. If he would have taken a blood or urine test he could have definitely proved he was not under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance. Once he refuses, that’s it, the officer fills out the paper work. You’ve refused and that’s in itself a crime. They don’t have to prove Dustin was intoxicated, they don’t have to prove he even had anything to drink. All they have to show is he was lawfully requested to take a test and he refused. So that’s what we’re dealing with now.”

Byfuglien was originally stopped for operating his boat without navigational lights, according to Robinson.

“It was around 8:15, which is when the sun sets around here at that time of year,” said Robinson. “Was he technically operating his boat without lights after dark? I don’t know that yet.”

Minneapolis criminal defence attorney Jeffrey Schiek told the Free Press on Tuesday there is limited grey area in refusal cases.

“If he refuses to give blood or urine, that’s the refusal part of the charge and it’s very difficult to defend a refusal because you have to establish extreme circumstances for a person to refuse. I’ll offer an extreme case but if somebody had a heart attack or something, that would qualify as a reason to refuse,” said Schiek, a partner at Bloomington-based law firm Villaume and Schiek.

Byfuglien had dinner with his girlfriend as well as a business associate and his wife at Maynards, a Lake Minnetonka restaurant.

“He was well behaved and totally under control and there wasn’t any evidence that he was drunk,” said Maynard’s owner Tom Stevens.

Robinson said he and his client have yet to determine a course of action or determine if Byfuglien will plead guilty.

“He technically hasn’t even been charged so it’s way too early to be talking about pleading guilty,” said Robinson. “My understanding is he has no criminal record. He was polite and co-operative with law enforcement and there’s no indication the he was unsafely operating the boat and he wasn’t putting anybody in danger. If I were to guess, if he were convicted of this he’d probably be placed on probation for two years and fined somewhere around $500.”

Robinson said there was no contraband on Byfuglien’s boat.

“Dustin only refused to take the test because he was under the assumption that was the best thing to do. There is no evidence he was under the influence of anything at all, including marijuana. They searched him and they searched the boat and they didn’t find any marijuana or any paraphernalia,” said Robinson.

The Jets continue to have little to say on the subject.

“I’ve seen some of the different reports, but we really haven’t heard anything,” said Jets’ GM Kevin Cheveldayoff at the Young Stars tournament in Penticton. “It’s a legal matter and those things take care of themselves.”

The Jets are expecting Byfuglien to be at the opening of main training camp on Saturday at MTS Centre. In fact, Byfuglien was in Winnipeg on Monday looking for a place to live.

“We’ve had dialogue with himself and his agent but, again, all our dialogue has been essentially about the season and the on-ice stuff,” Cheveldayoff said. “The off-ice stuff I really can’t comment on.”

Hankinson said Byfuglien, despite reports about his weight and physical fitness, is ready to play at the elite level he’s shown in the past.

“He’s a big powerful man,” said Hankinson. “With his metabolism, his weight probably changes hourly. He’s listed at 245 and he hasn’t played at that since he was 16 years old. He wasn’t weighed with the recent trouble he got it in. It was reported he weighed 286 and he actually played at that weight last year. He’s been skating with us everyday for a month. We run a camp with 25 to 30 NHLers here in Minneapolis and he looks as good as he ever has on the ice and off the ice with his shirt off. So, what everyone wants to know is how is he going to look on the ice and he’s going to look great. In my opinion, weight isn’t going to be an issue. I think everyone will be happy with what they see when he gets on the ice.”

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca

 

— with files from Ed Tait and Mike McIntyre