A man charged with causing the death of a 21-year-old Bradenton woman in a wrong-way crash on Interstate 75 was nearly three times over the legal alcohol limit, according to an arrest report.
Dennis Lee Olson, 53, was arrested on DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges after the Florida Highway Patrol said he drove the wrong way on I-75 in Charlotte County, causing a crash that killed one and seriously injured three others on Sunday, May 17.
The Bradenton woman who died was reportedly returning home from a wedding and had just texted her family to say she loved them and would be home soon.
The original press release from the Florida Highway Patrol said Olson was from Sarasota. However, the FHP’s arrest report, along with a traffic citation, lists Olson’s residential address as being in Lehigh Acres.
According to the Lee County Property Appraiser’s website, Olson and his wife purchased a house in Lehigh Acres on April 10, less than a month before the fatal crash.
Olson, according to records, previously lived in Minnesota, where he was charged with driving while intoxicated in 2019. Olson’s DWI was nearly seven years to the day of the fatal crash in Charlotte County.
He was also found guilty of theft by swindle in 2017, after authorities said he stole “hundreds of thousands” of dollars from his grandmother who had Alzheimer’s disease, Minnesota court records show.
What was Olson’s blood alcohol content?
After the May 17 crash, Olson was taken to AdventHealth in Port Charlotte, where two FHP troopers interviewed him, the arrest report shows. Olson said he had neck pain from the “crash I was in.” He also said he was having a “bad night.”
According to the arrest report, he said he didn’t remember the crash, only that he was coming from “Sip and Sizzle” in downtown Fort Myers, where he had one glass of wine.
Olson consented to a blood alcohol content (BAC) test, which came back at .222, nearly three times the legal limit in Florida, which is .08, the report said.
Six hours after the crash, according to the report, Olson gave a breath sample that registered .087, which was still over the legal limit to drive a vehicle.
The crash happened around 1:13 a.m. on northbound I-75 near mile marker 150 in Charlotte County, the FHP said.
Olson was traveling south in the northbound lanes when he collided with a 2016 Kia Optima and a 2012 Honda CR-V.
Who was the Bradenton woman who died?
The 21-year-old Bradenton woman, who was driving the Honda, was pronounced dead at the scene. The FHP did not initially release her name, but WINK TV identified her as Lauryn Akey, a nursing student at USF.
According to WINK, Akey was returning from a wedding and had just texted her family, saying that she loved them and was almost home.
Olson, records show, is married with a son and a daughter.
A 34-year-old Arcadia woman, and two passengers — boys ages 12 and 15 — suffered serious injuries and were brought to an area hospital, the FHP said. They were in a Kia.
A Tesla was driven by a 19-year-old Sarasota woman who was not injured.
Has Olson been charged with driving while impaired before?
According to Minnesota court records, Olson was charged with driving while intoxicated in St. Paul on May 14, 2019.
He refused a cab ride home after drinking in a bar, records show. An officer pulled him over after observing him crossing the center line and entering the other lane.
Olson’s blood-alcohol level was .17, according to documents. The limit in Minnesota is also .08.
A week later, Olson petitioned the court to have his license restored.
He challenged the validity of the breathalyzer, claimed his elevated body temperature raised his reading, said the government coerced him into giving a test by threatening criminal charges against him, and said that even if he was intoxicated, he was driving “out of necessity due to an emergency,” court record show.
Olson was convicted of a fourth-degree misdemeanor, spent three days in the county jail, was given two years of probation and was ordered to take a Mothers Against Drunk Driving class, which he completed.
In 2015, records show, Olson was arrested in Ramsey County, Minnesota, and charged with theft by swindle for taking money from the account of Betty Braun — his grandmother — who had Alzheimer’s.
Olson handled Braun’s finances between 2008 and 2013, when she died at 86.
“The total amount of Ms. Braun’s money taken by Dennis Olson for his own personal use since 2008 is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” a prosecutor wrote in the charging document.
Due to the statute of limitations running out, Olson was only charged with the theft of a fraction of the alleged amount.
He was found guilty in the case and was sentenced to one day in jail along with twenty years of probation. He was originally facing 20 years in prison.
Olson was also ordered to pay nearly $95,000 in restitution.
For years, he had been whittling away at the total with month payments of around $800.
On April 14, 2026, court records show he made a large payment of $29,244.82.
The payment was made four days before he purchased the house in Lehigh Acres for $372,500, according to court records.
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: DUI suspect nearly 3 times over limit in crash that killed Bradenton woman
Reporting by Chris Anderson, Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
