Man Arrested for 11th DWI Near Rosemount, May Have Been High on 'Bath Salts'

A Rochester man who told police he used to use methamphetamine but now injects bath salts – a synthetic drug recently banned in Minnesota – was arrested last Sunday and charged with his 11th DWI.

Michael Allan Andrist, 46, faces three felony counts of driving while impaired, each of which carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $14,000 fine, and one felony count of fleeing a police officer, which has a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Andrist remains in the Dakota County Jail on a $150,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled for Aug. 1 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.

According to the criminal complaint, the Dakota County sheriff’s office received a number of reports last Sunday night about a pickup truck southbound on Highway 52 near 160th Street. Callers said the driver was having trouble staying on the road, swerving repeatedly into the ditch and then returning to the road at 70 mph.

Deputies stationed at Highway 52 and 210th Street spotted Andrist’s truck with large amounts of grass hanging from the front bumper and the vehicle’s undercarriage, still driving on the shoulder, the complaint says.

When Andrist reached the intersection, he turned right onto 210th Street, then stopped, backed up and returned to southbound Highway 52, the complaint says. A sheriff’s deputy pulled in behind him and turned on his emergency lights and siren, but Andrist continued driving south on Highway 52 until he stopped at 215th Street, according to the complaint.

Andrist appeared to be “obviously impaired” when a deputy approached his truck, according to the complaint. “He was very jittery and excited, yet his mental state was slow and confused,” the complaint says, and he had a difficult time understanding where he was and why he had been stopped.

Andrist told deputies that he had been in the metro area helping a friend with a construction project, but the complaint says it was difficult for deputies to “track specifically what Andrist was saying about where he had been and what he was doing.”

When Andrist got out of his truck, he had no shoes on, and deputies couldn’t find shoes anywhere in the truck, the complaint says. He had trouble maintaining his balance, stumbling and swaying, but he told deputies that he doesn’t drink and that he hadn’t taken any kind of drugs, according to the complaint.

Andrist later told a deputy that he was on some prescription medication, but couldn’t tell him what he had taken or when he had taken it. The complaint says he tested negative for alcohol, but the deputy arrested him because he believed he was under the influence of some kind of controlled substance.

As the deputy searched Andrist, he felt a hard cylinder-type object in one of his pants pockets, and asked Andrist what it was. Andrist told the deputy he didn’t know; the deputy asked if it was something that might poke, stick or cut him, and Andrist told him there was a hypodermic needle in his pocket, according to the complaint.

The deputy asked a drug recognition expert from the Farmington Police Department to meet him at the Hampton fire hall to do an evaluation of Andrist. After the tests were completed, Andrist told the expert that he used to use methamphetamine, but hadn’t done so for a long time; instead, he now injects bath salts, which he said have the same effects as meth but don’t cost as much, according to the complaint.

Bath salts – also known as MDPV – is a synthetic “designer drug” that was officially banned from sale in Minnesota as of July 1. Experts say it is four times as potent as Ritalin, and has been marketed under such names as Ivory Wave, Vanilla Sky, Pixie Dust and Euphoria.

Andrist’s criminal record includes 10 convictions for DWI and four convictions for fleeing a police officer.