MITCHELL — The Mitchell City Council will look at honoring Mayor Bob Everson’s selection to revoke a Mitchell taxi company’s license on Monday due to the owner becoming arrested for alleged possession of methamphetamine.
According to Everson, the owner of Speedy Taxi, Dustin Feistner, was arrested on Mar. 7 for alleged possession of a controlled substance (meth), a Class five felony that carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a $ten,000 fine.
In Everson’s letter to Feistner, he wrote “the common use of methamphetamine poses an undue threat to public security.” Everson explained Feistner’s arrest and alleged confession to law enforcement officers that he was “using meth on a day-to-day basis” was grounds for the city to revoke his taxi license.
Whilst Feistner’s taxi license is revoked as of now, the council can honor the selection or override it at the six p.m. meeting on Monday.
The current license revocation is not the 1st time Feistner was stripped of a taxi license in Mitchell. In 2021, the council denied Speedy Taxi’s license due to his lengthy criminal history and previous allegations of poor driving habits. In the early years of Speedy taxi’s operations, various other taxi company owners urged the council to deny Feistner’s license, citing alleged road rage incidents and poor company practices.
In 2019,
he was arrested for major officers on two automobile pursuits
and
possessing a firearm just after a violent crime conviction
. Feistner pleaded guilty to possession of a
firearm just after a violent crime conviction in connection to the August 2019
incident and was sentenced to 5 years in prison. In 2017, Feistner was convicted of aggravated assault, which prohibited him from possessing a firearm in his possession.
According to Police Chief Mike Koster, Feistner has previously operated the taxi service for a period of time with no a license.
Soon after Feistner was released from prison and placed on parole roughly two years ago, he came back in front of the council looking for one more opportunity at operating his taxi company.
“In January, I did go to prison and served 15 months. I think I am a changed person… It gave me a lot of time to assume and reform myself,” Feistner mentioned at the June 2021 council meeting. “I’m asking for a conditional license… Initially and foremost, I am a changed particular person, and I’d really like a opportunity to prove that.”
The council eventually gave Feistner one more chance at operating his taxi company in January 2022, six months just after denying him a license.
Sam Fosness joined the Mitchell Republic in Could 2018. He was raised in Mitchell, S.D., and graduated from Mitchell Higher College. He continued his education at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, exactly where he graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in English. In the course of his time in college, Fosness worked as a news and sports reporter for The Volante newspaper.
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