UPDATE at 9:05p.m. October 31st, 2024: Wayne Wacker is currently no longer in custody. Attorney Julius Kim at Kim and Lavoy is representing Wacker and says Wacker’s case is similar to multiple cases he has done in the past as an attorney. Kim talked with Wisconsin’s Afternoon News about previous cases.
“To be honest with you, we’ve done a lot of these cases that involve the exact same exit ramp,” said Kim. “People have gotten on the highway by going the wrong direction right at that particular ramp.”
Kim says Wacker did not know that he passed the vice presidential motorcade. As of now, Wacker must maintain sobriety with breathalyzer monitoring after posting bail. Wacker’s charge is a class-G felony… punishable up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 dollar fine.
MILWAUKEE — The man who drove the wrong way on the highway into the path of the vice president’s motorcade is formally charged.
55-year-old Wayne Wacker of Milwaukee faces a felony charge of 2nd degree recklessly endangering safety for driving the wrong way on I-794 on October 21, 2024 around 8:30pm.
According to the criminal complaint, Wacker told the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s officers that he was “headed home from a bar in Walker’s Point and was unaware he was driving the wrong way on the freeway” and that he had ” no recollection of entering the freeway or almost striking another vehicle”.
Department of Transportation cameras captured Wacker driving the wrong way on I-794 near the James Lovell/St. Paul off-ramp, and passing close to the motorcade carrying Vice President Kamala Harris at what law enforcement says appeared to be close to highway speeds.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office was escorting the motorcade after Vice President Harris’ rally in Brookfield with former Congresswoman Liz Cheney at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center. When Sheriff’s deputies stopped Wacker, they said he “had a very strong odor of intoxicants emitting from his person, bloodshot and glassy eyes, and extremely slurred speech”. He then performed poorly on field sobriety tests and that his preliminary breath test resulted in a .252 blood alcohol level reading, which is over three times the legal limit of .08.
Wacker told officers that “he had no idea the Vice President was in Milwaukee. He stated he did not have any intention of harming the Vice President or anybody on her campaign”.
Wacker made his initial appearance in court on October 25. He’s currently being held in the Milwaukee County Jail.
