An off-duty St. Paul police officer who was drunk when he crashed into a vacant building on the city’s East Side has been sentenced to 10 days in the workhouse and two years of probation.

Bryan James McKinnon, 40, of St. Paul, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court to gross misdemeanor third-degree driving while intoxicated and was sentenced the same day. A second third-degree DWI count was dismissed as part of a plea deal he reached with prosecutors.

Blood samples analyzed by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension showed McKinnon’s blood-alcohol concentration was 0.178, according to a November criminal complaint filed by the Minneapolis City Attorney’s Office, which handled the case to avoid a potential conflict of interest. The legal limit to drive in Minnesota is .08 BAC.

The St. Paul City Attorney’s Office initially charged McKinnon with two misdemeanors but then dismissed the case, pending the results of McKinnon’s blood testing after the crash.

McKinnon has been a St. Paul officer since 2022 and works in the Eastern District as a patrol officer. He was put on a desk job after the incident, which remains his assignment, according to the department.

According to the complaint, a St. Paul police officer responded to a call at about 12:15 a.m. Aug. 1 that a vehicle had crashed into a building at Third and Maple streets in the Dayton’s Bluff area. The 911 caller said the vehicle was a Dodge Durango SUV and gave the license plate information. The officer realized the Durango was McKinnon’s personal vehicle.

Upon arrival, the officer saw the SUV was on fire and partially in the building. He ran to it to check for occupants. He was then flagged down by McKinnon, who “appeared to be in shock and very distraught about the incident,” the complaint says.

The fire spread to the building, and firefighters extinguished it. City records show the building is considered single-family residential, but has been vacant for nearly two years.

McKinnon declined medical attention. A St. Paul police sergeant told the responding officer to contact the Minnesota State Patrol to assist with a DWI investigation due to the possible conflict of interest.

A state trooper who arrived at 12:51 a.m. noted McKinnon’s eyes were glassy and slightly bloodshot, and he had a slight slur when he spoke, the complaint says. He said he didn’t know how fast he was driving before losing control of his vehicle. The trooper asked McKinnon if he’d had anything to drink and he said two beers.

The trooper conducted field sobriety tests and McKinnon swayed during the one-leg stand test, and lost his balance during the walk and turn test, the complaint says. The trooper asked if he would submit to a portable breath test and McKinnon declined.

The trooper arrested McKinnon on suspicion of DWI and he was taken to Regions Hospital for a blood draw. McKinnon agreed to the blood draw after being told that refusal to submit a blood or urine sample was a crime. His blood was taken at 2:25 a.m.

Ramsey County District Judge Jennifer Verdeja sentenced McKinnon to 364 days in the workhouse, then stayed all but 10 of them for two years, during which time McKinnon will be on unsupervised probation monitored by an administrative process, according to court documents. McKinnon will begin the 10-day workhouse sentence April 14.

Conditions of probation include attending a Mothers Against Drunk Driving impact panel and no same or similar offenses. Restitution will be determined by probation within 60 days.