ST PAUL, Minn. — The parents of an 11-year-old Chisago County girl killed by a motorist who ran a stop sign never got to face that man in court, and they're urging legislators to close that loophole in Minnesota law.
"It felt very unjust. And just really reflected very little value for our daughter’s life," Ginger Larson told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday.
Ginger was driving down a rural Chisago County highway in September of 2016, when the driver of an SUV blew through a stop sign and broadsided her car, virtually demolishing it. Ginger's daughter Brooklyn Larson, who was a passenger, was killed on impact.
As a KARE 11 I-Team investigation in 2018 revealed, accident investigators didn’t order a forensic examination of the driver’s cell phone. The accepted his word that he wasn't using his phone at the time of the crash, even though he admitted he had texted his wife while driving earlier on the same trip.
Eventually the Chisago County Sheriff's Office issued him a ticket for simple careless driving. He paid the $135 fine online and never made a court appearance, which is allowed by current state law.
Brooklyn's family never had the opportunity to make a victim impact statement or speak to the driver who took their daughter's life.
"The loss of our daughter was hard enough, but having the judicial system fail us in this way, it just added a whole another weight of trouble in our hearts," Ginger Larson told the committee.
The panel is considering a bill that would change that standard. It would essentially remove traffic violations that result in death or serious injury from the "payables list" -- a set of offenses that can be resolved without a court appearance.
"The Larsons can’t turn back the clock and make their family whole," Sen. Karin Housely, the Stillwater Republican who's carrying the bill.
"They don’t have the desire to persecute the driver of the other car. But they also don’t want to see this happen to anybody else."
The committee held the bill over in hopes of getting more legal advice on the impact the bill would have, and whether it would actually prevent the type of scenario that occurred in Brooklyn Larson's case.
Chisago County Sheriff Brandon Thyen told senators Friday that crash investigators wrapped up their probe into the crash a few months after the accident and turned over their evidence to the county attorney's office. He said the county attorney's office then sent a deputy a memo recommending the careless driving citation.
As KARE 11's Lou Raguse originally reported in 2018 even under existing law there could've been a hearing in this case, but a deputy forgot to check a box marked "endangering life and property" on the citation.
But, without the "endangering life and property" box checked on that ticket, there was nothing to flag the offense as being out of the ordinary. Sheriff Thyen said these types of errors are more common with the advent of e-tickets, which allow traffic violators in some cases the convenience of pleading guilty and paying their fines online.
"The defendant receives a citation in the mail, so he's able to sign that citation and basically pay his fine, which basically closes that incident," Thyen explained.
"With that, as Mrs. Larson explained, they're denied that opportunity to provide that victim statement, to be part of that sentencing process and also go a step further with their grieving process."
He said he supported the bill because it would give victims more due process under the law and hold careless drivers more accountable for their actions, especially in cases of deaths and serious bodily harm.
Ginger and Pat Larson supported a similar bill in the 2019 session carried by Rep. Bob Dettmer of Forest Lake, but that legislation stalled. The Larsons say they're hoping this is the year the legislation gets the traction it needs.