Star Tribune
Coon Rapids man faces felony charges after woman killed in crash
A 52-year-old Coon Rapids man is facing felony charges for reportedly crossing the centerline of a highway while intoxicated and crashing into another vehicle, killing a 41-year-old woman and injuring a child.
Chad J. Seitz was charged Tuesday in Stearns County District Court with two felony counts of criminal vehicular homicide, two gross misdemeanor counts of criminal vehicular operation and one gross misdemeanor count of giving a false name to a peace officer.
According to court documents, a State Patrol trooper was dispatched to two-vehicle crash on Hwy. 55 west of Belgrade just before 7 a.m. Monday and found a GMC SUV in the south ditch and a Honda subcompact car in the north ditch.
The driver of the Honda, Cassie E. Mithaugen, was found partially ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. A medical examination later indicated her cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries, documents state.
A 3-year-old girl in the car with Mithaugen was hospitalized with for a cut and some bruising; the woman’s family told officials she was driving the child to day care at the time of the crash.
At the scene, Seitz identified himself as a 39-year-old man with the initials K.R.K. and later told the trooper he provided a false name because he had a warrant out of Stearns County for violating the conditions of release on an ongoing case involving methamphetamine possession, documents state.
The trooper observed Seitz showing signs of impairment so the officer conducted a field sobriety test and obtained a search warrant for a blood test, the results of which are still pending. Documents state a preliminary breath test indicated Seitz was not under the influence of alcohol.
Seitz told officers he might have dozed off while driving from Starbuck to the Twin Cities on the two-lane highway; he also told officers he used cannabis the previous Friday and smokes meth weekly, documents state.
Seitz was slightly hurt in the crash. He has multiple previous convictions for theft, drug possession and driving after revocation.
At his first court appearance Wednesday, Judge Sarah Hennesy set bail at $800,000 with no conditions and $400,000 with conditions he not use alcohol or drugs and submit to random testing. His next court date is Feb. 2.
Transforming the heart of both downtowns, which have much larger buildings than old warehouses, is going to take a lot more money, creativity and time. Josh Talberg, managing director at downtown Minneapolis brokerage JLL, said with no major apartment buildings on the drawing board in either downtown, the fleet of empty office buildings present a golden opportunity to create more housing and lead both cities in a new direction.
“You can can certainly see the fundamentals improving, and you can feel that vibrancy, and that’s ultimately the foundation that’s needed to get investors to reinvest in the city,” he said. “But it’s not as if these 18-wheelers can turn on a dime.”
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
