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Anyone in St. Paul who has been in a car accident knows that Minnesota is a no fault state, meaning that an insurance company will pay any bill related to an accident, no matter who causes the accident. While this helps to protect people who might otherwise be unable to cover their medical costs following an accident, some people are saying the policy is also contributing to insurance fraud, a felony under Minnesota law.
When we last talked about Amy Senser, she had just been convicted of hitting someone with her car and leaving the scene of the accident. She was sentenced to 3 1/2 years for her two convictions of criminal vehicular homicide, but in December, her attorney filed an appeal with the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Now, the assistant Hennepin County attorney has filed his brief supporting the Senser’s conviction and Senser’s attorney has 15 days to file his.
An airline pilot was taken into custody at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Friday morning after security agents at the airport say that they caught a whiff of alcohol on the pilot as he passed the agents near an elevator in the airport. No charges have yet been filed.
Last summer, a Lakeville Police officer says that he drove past a Lakeville sports bar several times while on patrol. The officer says that he noticed a man sitting in a green Jeep parked in the bar’s parking lot on three separate occasions as the cop drove past the bar.
A deputy from Wright County is accused of driving while impaired and one count of gross-misdemeanor criminal vehicular operation after he was involved in a car accident in Monticello, Minnesota, on August 5. The Minnesota Highway Patrol claims that the deputy was off-duty when he rear-ended another car. Law enforcement says that a person in the other car suffered a small cut to his ear in the crash. Troopers think that the off-duty deputy was impaired at the evening of the accident.
There is a gut reaction that many people in Minnesota have to fatal pedestrian accidents. When a pedestrian is hit, most people will say the driver is automatically at fault and should face serious criminal charges. In some cases, this is true and the driver will be charged with vehicular homicide. In many other cases, however, it is the pedestrian’s fault that he or she was hit. However regrettable a fatal pedestrian accident is, a driver cannot be held criminally liable for the pedestrian’s death if it is the pedestrian’s fault.
Minneapolis basketball fans may have heard that the NBA’s players’ association executive director is coming under fire after a number of missteps were reported in a review that was initiated by the union president.
A Minnesota State trooper says that he clocked a car driving six miles over the speed limit on 394 near Penn Avenue November 26. The driver reportedly took the Penn Avenue North exit, but the trooper claims that the driver failed to use a turn signal before exiting the freeway. The alleged minor traffic infractions pale in comparison to the gross misdemeanor DWI and the felony drug charges that the driver now faces after the so-called routine traffic stop.