Star Tribune
Victim’s family objects to plea deal for fatal crash in Minneapolis
An unlicensed motorist admitted Wednesday that he was going at least 85 mph when he ran a red light, collided with another driver in a north Minneapolis intersection late last year and killed him.
Sylvester T. Vaughn, 40, of Minneapolis pleaded guilty in Hennepin County District Court to criminal vehicular homicide-gross negligence in connection with the crash that killed 22-year-old Josiah R. Oakley of Minneapolis on Dec. 11 at N. 42nd and Lyndale avenues.
The plea agreement between the prosecution and the defense calls for Vaughn to receive a four-year sentence, which falls within state sentencing guidelines. With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Vaughn is expected to serve slightly more than 21⁄3 years in prison and the balance on supervised release.
The plea deal also includes dismissal of a criminal vehicular homicide count alleging that he was drunk at the time of the crash. The criminal complaint said that Vaughn’s medical records from North Memorial Health, where he was treated for his injuries from the crash, showed that his blood alcohol content soon after the collision was 0.236% — nearly three times the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 3, when Judge Carolina Lamas will decide whether to accept and impose the terms.
Vaughn was driving at the time despite his license having been revoked. His criminal history in Minnesota includes a conviction in 2019 for drunken driving. In that case, according to court records, he hit another vehicle from behind at a red light in Brooklyn Center. A preliminary breath test at the scene measured his blood alcohol content at 0.19%. A judge set aside a six-month jail sentence and put Vaughn on probation for two years.
The Oakley family learned weeks ago that the prosecution intended to offer Vaughn a four-year sentence. Oakley’s mother, Desiree Oakley, wrote on April 21 to the victim advocate assigned to her family by the County Attorney’s Office that Vaughn’s “reckless and dangerous behavior” robbed her of her only son, and his loved ones wanted the plea offer rescinded.
“We all strongly objected to this plea deal and didn’t understand why the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office was willing to offer any plea,” she wrote. “It is utterly absurd that the fact that he has endangered public safety by driving drunk and previously rear-ending someone [at a] stop light does not matter in this current case. … I feel it is my job as my son’s mother, but also a responsible member of the community, to protect the public from Mr. Vaughn.”
A statement from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office didn’t address the terms of the plea agreement. “Our thoughts are with Josiah’s family, friends and all who loved him,” spokesman Nicholas Kimball said. “His loss was a senseless and preventable tragedy that no family should have to experience.”
Oakley was a 2019 graduate of Minneapolis Edison High School, where he was on the chess team that won the Minneapolis Public Schools tournament in 2017. He finished second in the individual competition. Oakley also played football for Edison for two seasons, baseball for four seasons and was a member of the band.
According to the complaint against Vaughn:
Around 12:40 a.m., a police officer at Lyndale and 45th avenues spotted Vaughn’s Chevy SUV race by and then saw the immediate aftermath of the SUV’s collision with Oakley’s Pontiac SUV at 42nd Avenue. Emergency responders arrived and declared Oakley dead at the scene. The officer removed the injured Vaughn from his SUV before he was taken to North Memorial.
A State Patrol analysis determined that Vaughn was traveling 85 to 90 miles per hour when he entered the intersection through a red light and hit Oakley’s vehicle. The speed limit on that stretch of Lyndale is 30 mph.
St. Louis Park will soon require landlords to give renters more notice before they file for evictions over late payments.
The city currently requires landlords to give tenants notice seven days before they file for eviction. Starting in November, landlords will have to give 30 days notice and use a form prepared by the city.
“This is a tough ordinance,” Council Member Lynette Dumalag, the only person to vote against the change, said during a meeting this week. “At least for me, personally, I felt that it pit those that care about affordable housing against one another.”
In public hearings and other forums, city leaders heard from renters who said the current requirements didn’t give them enough time to scrape together payments if they face a sudden hardship, such as losing a job. They also heard from at least one landlord who said he might have to increase deposits because he already struggles to make ends meet when renters fall behind on payments.
The change passed 4 to 1. Council Member Tim Brausen and Mayor Nadia Mohamed were absent.
PARK RAPIDS, Minn. — Ryan Leckner has resigned as Mayor of Park Rapids and the city council has officially declared a vacancy.
City Administrator Angel Weasner said councilmembers will hold a workshop on Sept. 24 to determine how to proceed. They can fill the vacancy by appointment or hold a special election, which Leckner said seems unlikely given that the November general election is just around the corner.
Until then, Leckner said “we’re thinking that we’ll just be able to get by with just one less council member.”
He added that Councilmember Liz Stone would likely serve as acting mayor until voters hit the polls.
Former Park Rapids Mayor Pat Mikesh is running uncontested for Leckner’s now-vacant seat.
In 2018, Mikesh stepped down a month before the election and Leckner successfully ran as a write-in candidate.
Leckner first joined the council in 2015 and is ending his third, two-year term as mayor early because his family built a home outside city limits. Construction of the home in Henrietta Township, and the sale of his existing home in Park Rapids, all happened faster than expected, he said.
“My term was up in November anyways,” he said, “so I was kind of planning on just not running.”
In the 27 years since Rhode Island’s first charter school opened its doors, just one has closed. Segue Institute for Learning, a community charter in Central Falls, R.I., is among the state’s successes. It has an extraordinarily low student-to-teacher ratio of 4 to 1, even though it spends less than a typical Rhode Island school.
Part III
How Rhode Island’s charter schools succeeded where Minnesota’s failed
Each spring, Blackstone Valley Prep in Rhode Island hosts a loud, spirited and celebratory “college signing day” ceremony for its high school seniors. One by one, the teenagers step onstage to proudly announce their post-graduation plans. Many are the first in their family to seek a degree.
Rhode Island is the smallest state in the country, but it’s here — and not in Minnesota, the birthplace of the charter school movement — that this daring experiment in public school education is paying big dividends for students and their families.
Left In the 27 years since Rhode Island’s first charter school opened its doors, just one has closed. Segue Institute for Learning, a community charter in Central Falls, R.I., is among the state’s successes. It has an extraordinarily low student-to-teacher ratio of 4 to 1, even though it spends less than a typical Rhode Island school.
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