A West Des Moines man was arrested early Monday after crashing his car in a park while allegedly high on Xanax.
Joshua Andrew Kleinhans, 36, of 204 S. 64th St., West Des Moines, was charged with first-offense OWI and failure to maintain control.
The incident began about 2 a.m. Monday in Wild Rose Park at 68th Street and Cody Drive in West Des Moines, where officers of the West Des Moines Police Department responded to a report of a motor vehicle crash.
Kleinhans called law enforcement and “reported a deer had jumped in front of his vehicle and he swerved,” according to court records. The Westcom dispatcher who took the call said that Kleinhans “had slurred speech and seemed intoxicated.”
The responding officer determined Kleinhans’ Kia K5 left the roadway of the park, jumped the curb and came to rest in the park grass, having sustained “heavy front-end damage and an inoperable left front wheel,” according to court records.
The investigating officer observed that “the vehicle left scrapings on the cement from traveling at a high rate of speed and bottoming out at the park entrance” and determined “the vehicle continued north, striking a curb and leaving scrapings from the rim of the vehicle,” according to court records. As the vehicle “continued north,” it “struck another curb and went over it and came to final rest in the park grass area.”
Kleinhans presented to the officer with “slurred speech” and “impaired balance,” and he “stumbled while trying to move around the outside of the vehicle,” according to court records.
Kleinhans “failed field sobriety testing and was detained,” according to court records. He “later admitted to taking two Xanax.”
Kleinhans is held in the Dallas County Jail on a $1,000 cash or surety bond. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Sept. 8 in Dallas County District Court.
*A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
