The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

August 30, 2009

DWI suspect accused of hit and run

Charged with hitting pedestrian

By Dan Nienaber

COURTLAND — A Courtland man who was arrested Aug. 8 for drunken driving is now facing a felony charge for allegedly hitting a pedestrian the same night.

Britt Michael McGill, 33, was arrested near Courtland at about 9:35 p.m. after a State Patrol trooper stopped him for driving without a headlight. An initial breath test showed he had a blood-alcohol concentration of .19, or more than two times the legal limit of .08 for driving. He allegedly told the deputy he had consumed about 18 beers since noon.

Just before 1 a.m. the following morning, or about four hours after McGill’s arrest, a deputy with the Nicollet County Sheriff’s Department responded to a call from the emergency room at the hospital in New Ulm. A man there, 27-year-old Christopher Louis Bode, was being treated for a bruised hip, bruised shoulder, multiple cuts and an eye injury.

Bode told the deputy he had been drinking at a bar in Courtland when he heard about a party down a gravel road off Highway 14. He was walking to the party when a tan car passed him, stopped, went into reverse and hit him, he said. The driver of the car got out and said, “Oh (expletive), I hit you. I’m sorry,” Bode told the deputy.

Then the driver — who had dark hair, a goatee and was wearing boxer shorts — got back into his car and drove away, Bode reported.

Bode said he was stranded in the ditch until he was found by Dave Ubel, a Courtland firefighter. Ubel brought him home, but Bode decided to go to the hospital when his face and hip became more painful, he said.

Bode also told the deputy he received a text message from Ubel saying the guy who had hit him had been stopped and arrested for drunken driving off the same road where Bode was hit. The deputy checked a report written by the trooper and realized the driver arrested matched McGill’s description.

McGill was interviewed by the deputy. He said he knew he had hit someone, but the person was standing up and he assumed he wasn’t hurt, the criminal complaint said.

McGill has been charged with criminal vehicular operation and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 10. He has a hearing at the same time for the earlier drunken-driving charges. Those charges are gross misdemeanors because he has two previous drunken-driving convictions.

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