A man accused of running over a child under the age of 2 while he was intoxicated in Onalaska on Friday has been charged with vehicular assault.
The charge is a class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Robert J. Donnelly Jr., 47, of Onalaska, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail just before 5:10 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 3, according to jail records.
Deputies with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office had searched for Donnelly the night before, without success, after they learned he had possibly hit a child with his vehicle.
Deputies had originally responded to a 911 call for trauma to a 1-½-year-old girl in the 200 block of Carlisle Avenue shortly before 10:50 p.m. on Aug. 2, according to court documents.
The child’s grandmother reported she was outside in the side yard with three children, including the 1-½-year-old, while Donnelly was preparing to go to the store. The grandmother reportedly went inside to look for Donnelly’s debit card when Donnelly said he couldn’t find it. Shortly after she went inside, Donnelly reportedly entered the residence carrying the 1-½-year-old, said “he did not know what happened” and “said there was nothing he could do and walked away,” according to court documents.
The grandmother told responding deputies that “Robert was drunk and … Robert was going to the store to buy beer,” according to court documents. The other two children in the yard at the time of the incident reported that “their grandpa had hit (the victim) with the van,” according to court documents.
The 1-½-year-old sustained “substantial bodily harm” and was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital for emergency medical care, according to court documents.
Donnelly’s bail was set at $250,000 over the weekend, but was reduced to $25,000 at the end of a preliminary hearing in Lewis County Superior Court on Monday.
In addition to his ruling to reduce Donnelly’s bail, Judge James Laweler also amended Donnelly’s conditions of release to prohibit him from consuming “alcohol of any kind at any time” and from driving without an ignition interlock device.
Donnelly is also required to obtain a SCRAM alcohol consumption monitoring device if he is released.
Arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 8.
