An Eden Prairie man is facing two gross misdemeanor DWI charges after he allegedly drove with illegal flashing lights, veered into oncoming traffic and refused a breath test late last month, according to a Hennepin County criminal complaint.
Manuel Danilo Carchi Belecela, 36, was charged Oct. 27 with second-degree DWI-test refusal and second-degree DWI-operate motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. He also faces misdemeanor counts of careless driving, driving after revocation and prohibited flashing lights.
Police were called at about 5:30 p.m. Oct. 26 after a driver reported a vehicle weaving in its lane and displaying “fake style police lights” near Flying Cloud Drive and Anderson Lakes Parkway, the complaint states. An officer spotted the vehicle — a 2002 Volvo S60 — with yellow and white strobing lights activated in its rear window.
According to the complaint, the driver made a wide right turn onto Columbine Road, crossed into the oncoming lane and nearly hit a southbound vehicle head-on. After briefly failing to stop, the car pulled into a parking area on Dahlia Circle.
Police say Carchi Belecela appeared intoxicated, smelled of alcohol and admitted through a translation app to drinking “3” alcoholic beverages. A preliminary breath test registered 0.235, according to the complaint. His license was revoked at the time because of prior impaired-driving incidents in 2022 and 2023.
At the police station, he failed to provide a sufficient sample for the DataMaster breath test, resulting in a test refusal, the complaint says.
Jail records show he has remained in custody since Oct. 26. Bail is set at $12,000. His next court appearance is a pretrial hearing on Dec. 10 at the Hennepin County Criminal Courts at Ridgedale in Minnetonka.