County Board candidate Jay Kinney comes with a past.
The man once accused of killing a blind pedestrian -- later revealed a tragic accident during which Kinney couldn't see victim, James Mattern, who died two days after the 2002 accident. Kinney was turning east from Ogden Avenue to Belknap Street on his way home after work when the accident occurred.
While the Wisconsin State Patrol found through an accident re-creation that Kinney couldn't see Mattern at the time of the accident, Kinney pleaded no contest to a charge he'd caused injury by negligent use of a motor vehicle. The state patrol found the post next to the windshield obstructed Kinney's view.
"I didn't see the person crossing the road," Kinney said. "I'm going to feel guilty about it the rest of my life. I think about it all of the time. Every time I get behind the wheel, I think about it. It's not an easy thing to live with."
Yet, subsequent to that accident -- in which alcohol was not a factor -- Kinney was twice arrested and convicted for driving drunk, most recently in 2009, when a sheriff's deputy spotted him swerving in the lane as he drove away from the parking lot at the Infield Bar on State Highway 35. A blood test revealed an alcohol concentration of .211 percent -- about 2½ times the legal limit.
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Kinney said following the most recent incident -- his third conviction for driving drunk since 1990 -- he attended classes at the Human Development Center.
"I'm trying to turn my life around," Kinney said.
