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Crime & Safety

Druecke to Serve Eight Months in Jail for Police Officer Hit-and-Run

Judge gives jail time to Brookfield business woman who hit Officer Paul Dilger in order send a message.

 

By 6 p.m. Friday, a Brookfield woman who hit a police officer with her car and continued to drive home will have to turn herself into the Waukesha County Huber Jail facility.

Christine Druecke, 53, was sentenced Thursday to eight months in jail with work-release privileges for hitting Officer Paul Dilger on Dec. 11, 2009 after a night of drinking and eating at the now-closed Club Garibaldi.

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Although District Attorney Brad Schimel had recommended probation for Druecke as part of a plea deal, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Kathryn Foster said the case dictated a need to send a message to the community.

“I believe probation isn’t holding you accountable,” Foster said. “I do believe there needs to be jail time.”

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Druecke, co-owner of Salto Gyms in Brookfield and Waukesha, hit Dilger with her car after a night out with her sister and didn't stop because she thought she had hit a deer. She turned herself in to police three days later after she saw news reports about what took place.

Druecke said she had two beers and two margaritas before the accident and contended she wasn’t drunk. However, Schimel said it was fair to question her sobriety given the large tab she had at the restaurant and the fact she didn’t report the accident immediately.

Dilger and other officers were responding to a report of a suicidal person and did not have their red lights activated.

Dilger's family members said he was forced to retire in December due to the injuries he sustained in the accident and is still in pain from the injuries.

Schimel said Dilger’s workers compensation ran out five months ago and it has placed the family in a difficult situation.

His wife and sister-in-law told the judge about the trauma they went through immediately after the accident and the pain Dilger continues to endure.

“My first instinct was that it was a young kid under the influence or something,” she said. “Never would I have thought it would have been a woman in her 50s living in Brookfield.”

“I don’t know what people think that disability is the gravy train rolling into his family’s life, they’re wrong.”

Druecke broke down in tears after Foster gave the sentence. She told the judge that she did take the initiative to turn herself in after the accident.

“What I know today is that I would still make that same decision,” Druecke said.

Druecke and her insurance company still face a lawsuit seeking damages from the Dilger family. That case is set for a pre-trial next July.

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