Menomonee Falls hit-and-run, driver charged

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. - A 61-year-old Menomonee Falls man is charged with hit-and-run causing injury in connection to a Tuesday afternoon crash.

Prosecutors accuse James Himmelstein of hitting another vehicle with his truck, injuring the driver, before driving off from a gas station near Appleton Avenue and Lilly Road.

Police were called to the scene of the two-vehicle crash around 2:30 p.m. When officers arrived, they saw a damaged, blue SUV near a gas station but no other vehicles in the immediate area.

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The SUV's driver, who was the lone victim, told police she had been hit by a maroon pickup truck. The impact caused her side curtain airbags to deploy and pushed her SUV into the gas station's brick sign, damaging the passenger side as a result.

The victim was released from the hospital around 8 p.m. the day of the crash. The victim did not break any bones but had bruises and a sprained wrist and back.

According to a criminal complaint, a witness told police that the victim was headed north on Appleton Avenue when a pickup truck turned left into the gas station parking lot – hitting the victim's SUV. The witness said the pickup truck pulled behind him at the gas station and described the driver as a white man in his 50s or 60s. The witness went inside to use the restroom, and the pickup truck was gone when he came out.

Police reviewed surveillance from the gas station. It did not capture the crash itself but did show the pickup truck entering the lot and the driver going into the store. Images were then disseminated to the public in an effort to identify the driver.

On Dec. 29, police got an anonymous call from someone who identified the suspect driver as Himmelstein. The caller also described the truck.

The complaint states officers went to Himmelstein's workplace and saw the same maroon truck parked outside. Inside, officers spoke to Himmelstein – who was wearing the same hooded sweatshirt as in the surveillance images.

Himmelstein at first denied knowing about a crash and said he was driving south on Appleton when he tried to turn into the gas station and another vehicle "brushed up" against the front of his truck. He said he believed the damage was minor, according to the complaint, so he did not call law enforcement or check on the vehicle or driver. His account went against the "great weight of the evidence," police said.

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In a Mirandized interview, Himmelstein said the victim sideswiped him as he waited to turn into the parking lot from the median. The complaint states he reiterated that he thought it was minor even after seeing the victim's SUV go off the road into the grassy area of the gas station. He again said he did not believe he needed to contact the driver, even if they slid off the road. 

Himmelstein made an initial court appearance on Dec. 30. His next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 13.