On January 15, 2026, at 0040 hours, Woodbury Police Department Officer Wegner cleared a traffic stop, where the driver, ELIZABETH JOAN ORNER [DOB REDACTED], was issued a citation for Driving After Revocation and issued a summons for a Gross Misdemeanor charge of No Proof of Insurance. Officer Wegner decided not to tow the vehicle or perform a custodial arrest of Orner, but told her not to drive her vehicle and to call for someone to come and pick her up. He advised Orner that if she was caught driving again, she would be arrested and her vehicle would be towed.
Orner told Officer Wegner that she understood, and called a friend from West St. Paul to come and pick her up. Officer Wegner cleared the traffic stop and drove away in the opposite direction from Orner. Approximately twenty minutes later, Officer Wegner was sitting on the northeast corner of Lake Road and Woodwinds Drive, typing up the previous incident report, when he observed Orner driving past him and entering southbound I-494. He activated his squad camera and initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle on I- 494, just prior to the Bailey Road junction, in Washington County.
He made contact with Orner, and she acknowledged that Officer Wegner had told her she would be arrested if he saw her driving again. Officer Wegner had Orner step out of the vehicle and placed her under arrest. Because Orner did not have insurance on the vehicle, there was no other valid driver on scene and the vehicle was parked in an unsafe position on the interstate, Officer Wegner called for Twin Cities Towing to come and tow the vehicle. He performed an inventory search of the vehicle and found Orner's purse, which contained drug paraphernalia and narcotics, which appeared to be methamphetamine.
Officer Wegner read Orner a Miranda warning and took a statement from her on the scene. Orner admitted that the substance in the purse was methamphetamine and it belonged to her. The drugs later tested positive for methamphetamine and weighed 11.08 grams.
