Posted: April 7, 2009

An attorney's court date didn't go as planned last week when he was arrested for drunken driving at Elm Grove's Village Hall.

According to information provided by the Elm Grove Police Department:

Defense attorney Michael Steinhafel, a 46-year-old Elm Grove resident, appeared at municipal court at 5:10 p.m. Wednesday to defend a client on a speeding citation. When Steinhafel was checking in with the bailiff, the bailiff noticed an odor of intoxicants on Steinhafel's breath. The bailiff also said Steinhafel was slurring his words.

Police said Steinhafel told police he had four beers with lunch earlier in the day and admitted to driving to Village Hall, 13600 Juneau Blvd.

Police told Steinhafel to wait in a chair in the court lobby so another officer could speak to him, but Steinhafel left the building and headed toward his vehicle in the parking lot.

Officers made contact with Steinhafel again in the parking lot and administered field sobriety tests, which he failed. His blood-alcohol content was 0.23.

Steinhafel, a former Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney, was municipally cited for drunken driving and obstruction. He was taken to the Waukesha County Jail on a 12-hour hold.

When reached at his home, Steinhafel said he had no comment about the arrest.

Last year the Office of Lawyer Regulation, an agency of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, publicly reprimanded Steinhafel after receiving complaints from three of his clients that the attorney had either failed to file lawsuits on their behalf or did not communicate with them about their cases.

Steinhafel has been involved in several high-profile Waukesha County cases in recent the years.

He was the attorney for John R. Kramer, a repeat drunken driver who killed a retired longtime area educator and gravely injured his daughter in an alcohol-related, hit-and-run crash in rural Jefferson County in 2005.

Steinhafel also in 2005 represented an Elm Grove couple who were sued by the village alleging for improperly turned their backyard tennis court into a business by offering private lessons.