Star Tribune
Ex-Minneapolis police officer pleads guilty to criminal vehicular homicide ahead of trial
Ex-Minneapolis police officer Brian Cummings pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide for his role in a high-speed chase that killed another driver nearly two years ago.
The plea deal means avoiding a jury trial in Hennepin County District Court and prison time by dismissing the second-degree manslaughter charge in connection to the fatal on-duty crash July 6, 2021 that killed Leneal Frazier, 40, of St. Paul.
Cummings, a 14-year veteran, left MPD when he was charged three months after the fatal crash resulting from the chase in north Minneapolis with a suspected carjacker who was arrested earlier this year. During the pursuit, Cummings’ squad car crashed into another car driven by Frazier, who was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Joshua Larson told District Judge Tamara Garcia that the parties reached a joint resolution for Cummings to serve up to one year in the county workhouse with a probationary term of three to five years. If he violates probation, the presumptive sentence would be four years.
Cummings’ sentencing is scheduled for June 22. He is not in custody.
Frazier was the uncle of Darnella Frazier, the teen who recorded ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes until he died. Cummings would’ve been the first Minneapolis police officer to stand trial since Chauvin, who was convicted of murder in 2021.
Cummings’ attorneys Thomas Plunkett and Debra Ellis read over the plea deal in court and a narrative of his patrol shift that night leading up to the crash. They stood before a dozen members of Frazier’s family across the aisle from Cummings’ family.
Cummings agreed that his speeds — reaching up to 100 mph — were dangerous and he had a duty to use due care in his driving. Larson asked Cummings to admit that he ran a red light when he crashed into Frazier, and Cummings agreed.
“I accept your guilty plea today,” Garcia told Cummings. “As of today you are convicted of this crime.”
The trial was originally set for September 2022 but rescheduled for May 1.
Frazier’s funeral at Minneapolis’ Shiloh Temple was attended by Floyd’s relatives and high-profile attorney Benjamin Crump, who told mourners that Frazier was an “innocent man minding his business” who was killed by Minneapolis police for not following its own chase policy. Frazier left behind six children.
Frazier’s death sparked a review of the city’s police pursuit policy, which says police may not initiate a pursuit or must end one if it “poses an unreasonable risk to the officers, the public or passengers of the vehicle being pursued who may be unwilling participants.”
Minneapolis attorney Jeff Storms, who is representing Frazier’s family, previously told the Star Tribune that he filed a notice of claim against the city — signaling a possible lawsuit after the criminal case is resolved. Storms did not return calls Thursday morning.
According to charges, Cummings was pursuing a stolen vehicle carjacked at gunpoint. The pursuit stretch about 20 blocks, reaching speeds up to 100 mph on residential streets where the speed limits are posted at 25 mph.
He was traveling about 78 mph when he hit Frazier at the intersection of N. Lyndale and 41st avenues.
Plunkett filed a motion in March 2022 asking the court to dismiss the case, but Judge Garcia denied.
“The accident was caused by Mr. Cummings driving 78-100 mph in a 25-mph residential zone, through a red light, and into an active intersection. These actions unquestionably caused the death of an innocent bystander …” Garcia wrote in her decision.
Before trial, Plunkett moved to offer Cummings’ prior pursuit experiences in the six months prior to the fatal crash. Plunkett said in court records that this experience would rebut witness testimony on behalf of the state that Cummings violated MPD pursuit policy. Former MPD Chief Medaria Arradondo was expected to testify that Cummings was driving too fast and failed to clear the intersection.
Other law enforcement officials were expected to take the witness stand and opine on the speeds reached in the pursuit, but Plunkett argued the MPD pursuit policy manual does not indicate a maximum pursuit speed or how officers should determine what risks are “unreasonable.”
On the contrary, Plunkett referenced MPD’s Pursuit Review Committee which found that Cummings “proactively performed his duty… with the intention of making Minneapolis safer by attempting to apprehend a violent and dangerous suspect.” The committee ruled Cummings did not violate department policy, Plunkett’s motion filed Monday said.
To prove manslaughter, prosecutors needed to show the death was caused by culpable negligence, or a matter so careless it disregards human life. Plunkett argued that Cummings was never reprimanded or told his pursuit conduct violated policy. He said in a pursuit one month before the fatal crash, Cummings reached speeds up to 102 mph on North Second Street and never received negative feedback from supervisors.
In fact, Plunkett argued that Cummings remained employed at MPD for three months after the fatal crash. He didn’t leave the department until charges were filed in late October 2021.
Police arrested the carjacker Cummings was pursuing 18 months after the fatal crash. James Jones-Drain had a dozen outstanding warrants on charges that include homicide and robbery. He was charged with fleeing police and auto theft for reportedly running several stop signs and red lights during the pursuit. Charges say he narrowly missed Frazier’s SUV.
This is a developing story. Check the startribune.com for updates.
Star Tribune
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on the campaign trial, gives a pep talk to the Mankato West High School Scarlets, a team he once coached.
MANKATO – The football players in their pads jogged out to face their rivals Friday night as Gov. Tim Walz, back home briefly as he campaigns across the country as vice presidential nominee, cheered them on.
“Don’t forget to have fun, enjoy,” Walz told players on the football team at Mankato West High School, where he worked as a geography teacher and assistant football coach before launching a political career that carried him to the Democratic Party’s national ticket.
Since choosing Walz as her running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has touted his background as a football coach, hunter and gun owner, as Democrats reach out to Midwestern voters and look for inroads with men.
Walz’s stop in Mankato is one of a series of media stops in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where the governor is talking high school football and hunting.
“This is the best of America,” Walz told reporters after greeting the players of Mankato West ahead of their rivalry game with Mankato East. He said he would visit his old classroom, before heading to watch the game.
A quarter center ago, Walz was the assistant defensive football coach for the 1999 Mankato West football team that won the state championship. That year’s crosstown rivalry game was a spark for Mankato West as it headed toward its state championship, said John Considine, a Mankato West alum and right tackle on that 1999 Class 4A championship team.
“It’s good to have him back,” Considine said Friday.
Local Republicans called Walz’s appearance a stunt. “They’re getting desperate to get the word out,” said Yvonne Simon, chair of the Blue Earth County GOP, adding she’s doesn’t think the governor’s “coach” branding is catching on.
“There’s a fair amount of stuff we’ve digested over the years,” Kerfoot told the Star Tribune at the time of the sale. “It’ll take a while to pick all of it out of me.”
In recent years, he and Sue have spent summers in Minnesota and then traveled back to Missouri to be close to family for the rest of the year.
Visitors love to drop in and talk about Justine Kerfoot or Bruce Kerfoot or the years they spent working at the lodge, Fredrikson said. He’s found that Bruce’s energy seemingly matched that of his mother, who died in 2001 when she was 94.
“He was one of those people that was able to get stuff done more easily or better than other people,” Fredrikson said. “Maybe because of who he was, or maybe because the stars align for this kind of person.”
In a social media post, Kerfoot’s family said they had peace knowing he and his mother “were paddling together to their shore lunch spot.”
Mark Hennessy knew Kerfoot for 40 years, but has had a closer view for the past three years. He said without Kerfoot, the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center, located near the end of the Gunflint Trail, wouldn’t exist. Whenever there was a work project, the executive director said, Kerfoot would show up.
A teenage motorcyclist was killed in a collision with an SUV at a Burnsville intersection, officials said Friday.
The crash occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Burnsville Parkway and Interstate 35W, police said.
The motorcyclist was identified by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office as Peter Vsevolod Genis, 17, of Burnsville.
An SUV driver was turning left from westbound Burnsville Parkway to northbound 35W when Genis went through a red light while heading east and struck the SUV.
The SUV driver and a woman with him, both from Burnsville, were not hurt.
The other vehicle was a Mercedes SUV. The driver was a 30-year-old male from Burnsville, with a 29-year-old female passenger from Burnsville. Neither of them was injured.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings