Can you be charged with owi when you were sitting in driver seat but keys were not in ignition?

The response you seek will depend on the specific circumstances of the police encounter. If your husband had just entered the vehicle and never inserted the keys, and otherwise did not drive or operate any of the controls of the vehicle necessary to set in in motion, then there has been no "operation", which is minimally necessary to be guitly of the offense. However, if the police followed him to a location, and then he parked and removed the keys as they were pulling/walking up to the vehicle, that's a different story. Further, if he was just sitting in the vehicle but told the police that he just drove to that location, he could have problems. In either regard, he may wish to have a qualified OWI attorney review the police incident reports and/or videos to see if there is a viable defense. Not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship exists between us.