Shawn Zelazny gets 2 years probation for driving Duluth basketball team's bus while drunk
DULUTH, Minn. -- A Sturgeon Lake man has been sentenced to two years supervised probation and 60 days in custody after pleading guilty to driving a bus carrying a Duluth boys' basketball team while intoxicated.
Shawn Zelazny, 48, was charged in January with two counts of second-degree driving while impaired, and a count of driving a commercial motor vehicle while impaired. He entered a Norgaard plea, indicating he believes the facts of the case indicated his guilt, but he was unable to remember the circumstances of the crime.
Someone onboard a bus carrying the Denfeld High School boys' basketball team texted 911 on Dec. 30, 2021, to say the driver was "acting erratic" and "saying things that weren't right."
When troopers pulled the bus over, they said the driver -- Zelazny -- told them he "probably drank too much" before driving the team to and from a tournament in Hibbing. A preliminary breath test put Zelazny's blood alcohol content at .218.
"Zelazny's actions placed the lives and safety of an entire basketball team at risk. Because of the egregiousness of this conduct, the Saint Louis County Attorney's Office joined Arrowhead Regional Corrections in requesting a more significant sentence than customary for similar charges," County Attorney Wad Backstrom said.
Zelazny's 60 days in custody will be served one weekend per month over the next two years.