MINNEAPOLIS - An amended complaint filed in Hennepin County Monday reveals new details that will likely make up the heart of the prosecution's criminal case against Amy Senser, the wife of former Minnesota Viking Joe Senser who wascharged with criminal vehicular homicide for her alleged role in the fatal hit and run that killed 38-year-old Anousone Phanthavong last September.
The amended complaint contains new eyewitness accounts, interviews and cell phone records from the night Amy Senser is alleged to havestruck and killed Phanthavong as he filled his vehicle with gas on the shoulder of a ramp to Interstate 94 from Riverside Avenue.
"Clearly it is our burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she knew at the time she hit him....She knew she hit something, that evidence is irrefutable. Her car was bashed up and his blood was all over his car and she had to know that is where she hit him," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in speaking to the new details the state provided in the amended complaint. Details he claims prove Amy Senser knew she hit a person and fled the scene.
Prosecutors say Amy Senser was set to pick up her daughter and some friends at a concert at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. After calls to Amy Senser's phone were unanswered, the girls called Joe Senser to pick them up. One witness, interviewed by investigators on Sept. 13 and identified in the complaint only as "Child C," said she overheard Joe on the phone with Amy. Joe told Amy "just go home," Child C told investigators. Child C also said when they returned to the Senser's home in Edina, she saw Amy Senser asleep on a couch on the porch.
Amy Senser's attorney, Eric Nelson, says nothing in those details proves she knew she hit a person that night. He says she was exiting 94 at Riverside that night to turn around to head back to the Xcel to pick up her teenage daughters from the concert. Nelson says Senser had gone to the concert as well but left just before 11 because she was suffering froma migrane. Nelson said Senser was going to head home and asked Joe to pick up the kids but that she decided against it. It was then that she took that exit to turn around.
Nelson said it was then that the crash happened but that Amy Senser only thought she hit some sort of traffic cone or barrel, not a person, and kept driving. Nelson then said Senser became lost and it was for that reason there were so many calls between her and her daughters and Joe; all of them, Nelson said, were trying to connect to pick the girls up at the X and to help Amy navigate her way out of St. Paul side streets near Riverside where she became lost.
Nelson said "Child C" overhearing Joe telling Amy on the phone to go home was accurate, but that it was just him telling her he had the kids and that she was free to drive home at that time.
The complaint continues to state Child C woke up the next morning at the Senser's home where Amy did not speak to her and Joe "appeared tense." Child C also recalled Amy and Joe talking about having to take care of a "car thing." The complaint also states Joe asked that no one answer the door and told them no one was to use the phone.
Nelson said it was also that morning that Amy Senser went into the garage to her car and noticed the blood on it and damage to it. It was then, Nelson said Amy knew that the crash the night prior was more serious. Nelson said Amy and Joe then called her brother for advice on an attorney, called an attorney and then that attorney, who was Nelson, called police to surrender the SUV.
In an interview done on Sept. 21, Amy Senser's brother, an Edina police officer, who was identified in the complaint as "T.O." told authorities he received a call from Joe Senser on the morning of Aug. 24, the morning after the hit and run accident. T.O. told investigators Joe Senser asked for a recommendation for an attorney "if one were hypothetically involved in an accident," the complaint states. T.O. recommended the Halberg Criminal Defense because of their one-time affiliation with the city of Edina.
The complaint filed Monday states Joe Senser's cell phone records show he placed a call to the Halberg Criminal Defense approximately 90 minutes after calling T.O. on the morning of Aug. 24.
Prosecutors also released Amy Senser's mobile phone use from the night of the accident. Records show several calls were made and received between 6:42 p.m. and 7:25 p.m. After that, the next call on the phone did not occur until 11:08 p.m.
The amended complaint states "based on the frequency of [Amy Senser's] incoming and outgoing texts prior to August 23rd, [there] is a significant gap in texting, such that investigators believe a number of texts were deleted."
Nelson says Amy Senser's phone company has been contacted for her phone records and Nelson says those records did not show any deleted text messages in the time frame under investigation.
A further investigation of Joe Senser's cell phone showed calls made at 7:20 a.m. and 8:28 a.m. the following morning to a number associated with Florida Detox, Inc., a treatment center in Palm Harbor, Florida. Those calls were placed prior to the calls made to T.O. and to Halberg Criminal Defense.
Nelson says those calls were made by Joe on his own behalf because Joe works for Florida Detox, Inc.
Another witness reported seeing Amy Senser's Mercedes SUV weaving in and out of its lane and moving at inconsistent speeds the night of the accident.
Nelson said that witness was called to positively identify Amy Senser in a photo lineup but was not able to say definitively that the driver he saw that night was in fact Amy Senser.
The Minnesota State Patrol issued a copy of the crash reconstruction report to Amy Senser on December 16. The findings of the crash report were included in Monday's amended court filings, part of which reads:
"The right headlight would have clearly illuminated the victim, even as a collision was unavoidable."
"Using 40 mph as an average for this distance to calculate time for a vehicle exiting the highway and slowing in an exit ramp, there would have been over four seconds of time for the Defendant to observe the Honda's flashing lights in the exit ramp and the victim standing near the left rear [of the car]."
Amy Senser is charged with one count of criminal vehicular homicide operation and another count of criminal vehicular homicide. Both charges are felonies.
She is not currently in custody.
A copy of the entire complaint can be read here.
