Woman charged in injuries to children from drunk boating

A Maple Grove woman was charged with four counts of criminal vehicular operation for recklessly operating a boat and sending two children careening into a dock where they suffered serious injuries, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Tuesday.

Jordan Seitz, 34, was charged with two counts of criminal vehicular operation-gross negligence and two counts of criminal vehicular operation-under the influence. All four counts reference great bodily harm to the injured victims. Seitz is expected to make her first court appearance Wednesday.

According to the criminal complaint, Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies were sent to Eagle Lake in Maple Grove about 8:10 p.m. Saturday where they learned Seitz was hosting a boating party for 10 of her daughter’s friends. Seitz was operating a boat and pulling two rafts containing some of those children.

Seitz drove too close to shore and as she turned back towards the open water one of the rafts collided with a fixed dock. Two of the children were seriously injured and taken to the hospital. A boy suffered a fracture of his lumbar vertebra, cuts, collection of fluid in his abdominal cavity and loss of consciousness, the complaint states. A girl suffered a head injury.

While talking to Seitz, the deputies detected the odor of alcohol on her breath and her eyes were watery and bloodshot. A breath test obtained a reading of .10, above the legal limit of .08. A blood sample was taken from Seitz about two hours later and those results are pending, according to the complaint.

Seitz Criminal Complaint (PDF)