Crime & Courts

Troopers: Wasilla man with history of drunken driving ends up in ditch, arrested again

A Wasilla man with three recent drunken driving convictions was arrested overnight Friday after a trooper encountered him with a vehicle in a ditch on McMillan Drive in Wasilla.

At 10:15 p.m. Friday, Alaska State Troopers found Michael Lanz, 28, next to a white 1998 Ford Mustang. Troopers said he was driving drunk and drove the car into the ditch. He wouldn't provide a breath sample, troopers said in an online dispatch. Lanz was charged with felony DUI, failure to submit to a chemical test and driving with a revoked license.

Lanz previously had his driver's license revoked after a felony drunken driving conviction, troopers said. He had three driving under the influence convictions in the last seven years, according to troopers.

Lanz also was convicted in 2014 of a misdemeanor drug charge, court records show.

He was being held Saturday at Mat-Su Pretrial Facility.

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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