On March 3, 2026, at approximately 5:48 P.M., Brainerd Police Officers were dispatched to a driving complaint regarding a red Impala that had just turned into an auto parts store located on Washington Street in Brainerd, Crow Wing County, Minnesota. Officer Gleason located the vehicle and observed the owner, Darwin James Gerdes, Jr., [DOB REDACTED], hereinafter "defendant," slumped in the driver's seat. The officer observed the vehicle running and defendant apparently sleeping. Defendant woke up while the officer was shining his flashlight into the vehicle.
Officer Gleason observed defendant's eyes were bloodshot and watery. While interacting with defendant, Officer Gleason observed that he continually started to slowly slump back over and seemingly start to fall back asleep. Officer Gleason asked Officer Johnson, a certified Drug Recognition Evaluator, to conduct an impaired driving investigation. Defendant cooperated in Field Sobriety Testing and showed clues of impairment. Officer Johnson advised defendant that he was under arrest and, when Officer Gleason moved forward to grab defendant's left arm, defendant immediately became angered, argumentative, and resistive.
Defendant was tensing his arm, pulling them forward, and appeared to be trying to get his hand into his front left pants pocket. Defendant was directed to stop resisting and continued to try and pull his arms away. Officer Gleason administered pepper spray and defendant continued to resist. Eventually officers were able to get defendant's hands behind his back and secured in handcuffs. During a search of defendant's person, Officer Gleason removed a metal candy bar container from defendant's inner jacket pocket.
Inside the container was a methamphetamine pipe and a baggie containing approximately 2.2 grams of field tested positive methamphetamine. Officer Gleason removed multiple knifes from defendant's front left pants pocket. Defendant was transported to the hospital where he submitted to a blood draw pursuant to a search warrant. Officer Gleason took a statement from the original complainant who stated that he drove behind defendant on Highway 25 and observed him vary between lane lines numerous times.
Defendant drove into/onto the center median when he turned onto 8th Avenue NE. Defendant nearly struck complainant's vehicle along with several others due to not maintaining his lane. Complainant also stated that defendant abruptly hit his brakes and appeared to run over some bushes while turning into the parking lot of the auto parts store. Defendant has the following prior conviction under Minn. Stat. Sect. 152: - Convicted of felony fifth degree controlled substance possession in court file 18-CR-16-16. Defendant has two prior impaired driving related losses of license: - Loss of license from July 24, 2024 for driving conduct occurring on May 7, 2024; and - Loss of license from July 8, 2025, for driving conduct occurring on July 8, 2025.
