Repeat offenders and vehicular crimes: Calls for stricter penalties and judicial reform in Minnesota
Derrick Thompson (left) was arrested following a deadly crash late Friday, June 16 that killed five young women. (FOX 9)
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Many questions have lingered in the aftermath of the tragic crash on June 16, when Derrick John Thompson, allegedly fleeing from police, sped through a light and crashed into a car, killing five young women. These include how the judicial system handles vehicular crimes and what changes might help prevent similar incidents in the future.
Thompson, the son of disgraced former State Rep. John Thompson, faces charges of 10 counts of criminal vehicular homicide. This includes five counts of operating a motor vehicle in a grossly negligent manner and five counts of leaving the scene — two counts per victim. Thompson, yet to enter a plea in this case and presumed innocent until proven guilty, already has a history of convictions for driving-related offenses.
In 2020, Thompson pleaded guilty to hitting a pedestrian in Montecito, California, in 2018, leaving her with a traumatic brain injury. He received an eight-year sentence, with prosecutors pushing for 10 years due to his previous driving convictions, including fleeing a police officer in 2017, driving after revocation in 2018, and driving with a suspended license twice in 2014.
Painful reminder for Colleen Kelly
Colleen Kelly finds Thompson's story all too familiar. Her daughter, Anya Magnuson, was 23 years old in October 2021 when she was struck by a reckless driver in an SUV as she crossed a street in Minneapolis' Uptown neighborhood. The driver, who had a suspended license, was later convicted of criminal operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm, a gross misdemeanor, and sentenced to 45 days. Meanwhile, Anya's recovery from a traumatic brain injury and multiple fractures continues to this day.
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Upon learning of Thompson’s history, Kelly shared her frustration on Twitter, detailing a series of Minnesota cases where drivers with past traffic offense convictions, many with suspended licenses, either killed or gravely injured pedestrians or cyclists.
"The thread that I wrote on Twitter was fueled by my anger," Kelly explained to FOX 9.
According to Kelly, society and the criminal justice system don't treat motor vehicle-related crimes with the severity they deserve.
"Almost everyone drives. I do think there's a little bit of a societal bias and empathy for someone who might make a momentary mistake looking down. I mean, who hasn't looked down or sped a little bit or reached for something and then bumped something?" she says.
Kelly believes laws should have guideline punishments that align better with the seriousness of these crimes. However, she doesn't think suspending offenders' driver's licenses is the solution, as many would continue to drive anyway.
Jon Cummings, a victim’s advocate who founded the advocacy group Minnesotans for Safe Driving after losing his daughter to a crash involving a drunk driver, agrees with Kelly.
"That would probably do more harm than good, because they're going to drive anyway. If they run into you and you or your loved one, you know, and they got no insurance, well, you're pretty much screwed," he said.
Proposal for more transparency
Minnesota State Rep. Paul Novotny, a Republican, agrees with Kelly on the need for stricter punishments but doesn't think changing sentencing guidelines is the answer. By state statute, criminal vehicular homicide can carry an up to 10-year sentence, while criminal vehicular operation causing bodily harm can carry an up to five-year sentence. But Novotny says the full sentences are rarely applied in court.
"I think the problem is that we're not sentencing people for the crimes that they've committed to start with. We can increase the penalties that they will get for a specific crime. But if they commit criminal vehicular homicide and they get pled down to a much lesser charge, it doesn't matter what the penalty for the more serious crime or charge would have been if that doesn't get convicted and sentenced on," he said.
His solution is to create a more robust, publicly searchable database for court cases. This, he says, would make it easier for people to see how prosecutors and judges handle cases, including plea deals.
"The mandatory minimums are ignored on a very routine basis. And that's one of the things that we hoped to highlight with the public searchable database, to show which judges, which prosecutors are not following through on what we consider mandatory minimums," he explains.
Both Kelly and Cummings support the idea of creating mechanisms to shed more light on plea deals, though Kelly points out that most judges run unopposed in Minnesota.
"Even if you thought there was a judge who was being particularly lenient or shouldn't have accepted even a plea agreement, there's no there's no change that happens from that," she said.
Individual responsibility
While Kelly pushes for systematic changes such as harsher sentencing guidelines and less generous plea deals for repeat offenders of vehicular crimes, she also believes in the individual responsibility of every driver to make roads safer, starting with driving slower.
"There were many moments when Anya was so seriously injured and on a ventilator for 16 days with everything broken — femur, skull, right eye socket. And I was like, ‘If only he'd been going five miles an hour less…’ The difference between 10, 15, up to 35 and 40 is exponential. So I think that would be great if everyone drove a little slower," she said.