Driving drunk to escape attack will cost driver license    •
Article by: ABBY SIMONS   • Star Tribune   • July 17, 2012 -
9:26 PM  Jennifer Axelberg cowered in the front seat of her
locked vehicle as her drunken husband jumped onto the hood and
punched the windshield so hard the glass spidered across the
driver's side.  Jennifer, also drunk, then started the car and
drove toward the safety of the tavern near Mora, Minn., where
they'd been drinking earlier. He was arrested on suspicion of
domestic assault and disorderly conduct -- and she was arrested
on suspicion of drunken driving.  Now a Kanabec County judge has
ruled that escaping domestic violence is no defense against
having your license revoked for drunken driving, denying the
38-year-old Monticello woman's challenge to the revocation of
her driver's license under Minnesota's implied-consent law.  In
his ruling, District Judge Stoney Hiljus wrote that "the episode
of domestic violence here is outweighed by the potential hazards
[Axelberg] created for th