Street lights went out Saturday night and early Sunday morning on State Street, leaving an area stretching from the Capitol to Lake Street in the dark on St. Patrick’s day.
The same night, police wrote tickets for multiple local ordinance violations, including a sexual assault and a battery on State Street, as well as citing seven drivers for operating under the influence.
Madison Gas and Electric started construction on utilities near West Washington Street on Thursday, and the work continued through Saturday, according to Steve Kraus, Manager of Media Relations for MGE.
“Workers realized that there were some issues on State Street, but at that point we had gotten into the project pretty deeply,” Kraus said.
This came as a surprise to Traffic Engineering officials and police, who, according to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, were “first informed early Sunday morning that there was nothing [MGE] could do.”
Verveer said a Madison police sergeant told him the combination of St. Patrick’s day, the high school state basketball tournament and nice weather encouraged more people to be out than on a typical Badger football game day.
“One of the cops I talked to on the street Saturday Night said that he felt uncomfortable driving his squad car down State Street because it was so dark,” Verveer said. “We were just lucky that there weren’t any major incidents related to the power outage.”
Police did, however, write “multiple city ordinance violations,” according to a Madison police sergeant, including seven tickets for driving under the influence, a sexual assault violation reportedly occurring in a State Street bus shelter and a fight outside of a State Street tavern.
A 28-year-old Madison woman told a patrolling officer early Saturday evening “a stranger had just touched her chest,” Madison Police Department spokesperson Joel DeSpain in a statement.
A 49-year-old Madison man was also “knocked unconscious after being sucker punched outside of a State Street tavern,” DeSpain said.
The incident occurred after the attacker called the victim a name, according to DeSpain.
DeSpain also said the victim was “taken to a hospital for observation, but was not seriously injured.”
