Hecker faces DWI, careless driving charges

The travails of auto mogul Denny Hecker worsened Friday with news that he would be charged with two misdemeanors -- driving while intoxicated and careless driving -- in connection with a single-car crash in December.

Plymouth police Capt. Craig Lindman said a state lab found a combination of powerful prescription drugs in Hecker's blood but no alcohol. The toxicology report listed the drugs as the painkillers hydrocodone, hydromorphone and morphine; the stimulant amphetamine; the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam, which sells under the trade name Xanax, and zolpidem, an insomnia medication better known as Ambien.

"These are substances you probably should not have on board while you are driving," Lindman said. "The city attorney decided to charge Mr. Hecker with two counts. The first one is a misdemeanor DWI, operating a motor vehicle under the influence of a controlled substance. The second count of misdemeanor is for careless driving," he said.

Hecker, whose once-formidable auto empire is crumbling under financial stress, crashed his SUV into a utility pole a mile from his house in December. He spent two days in the hospital after suffering a concussion, broken ribs and a cut that penetrated an artery and required 60 stitches, said his attorney, Marsh Halberg.

Hecker could not be reached for comment.

Halberg said the toxicology report doesn't tell the whole story. The medications that the report shows were in Hecker's blood "are prescribed medications that he was authorized ... to take," he said. "You have to be blind, deaf and dumb to not know what Denny Hecker has been going through the last few months. He has been under a lot of pressure."

Halberg asserted that the chemical analysis prepared by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension does not indicate how many medications Hecker actually took. "When you do a gas chromatograph [test] it can weed out fragments of things," he said. "You can take one pill, but it can list three different compounds. Five things listed doesn't mean that you took five different drugs."

The citations are the just latest challenges Hecker faces. Financial problems have led him to shut or sell 18 of his 26 dealerships and his Advantage Rent A car business. He's embroiled in lawsuits seeking $567 million in combined loans and contractual payments. Chrysler Financial and GMAC, his longtime funding sources, cut off credit to some of his dealerships.

Area auto dealers say the Pohlad Group, the family of Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer and Hecker's competitors are interested in his remaining dealerships -- for the right price. None returned calls seeking comment.