Star Tribune
Chronic teenage speeder crashes in Minneapolis, leaves passenger to die in fiery wreck, charges say
A 19-year-old woman with a brief but extensive penchant for speeding crashed her car on a well-traveled Minneapolis street late at night and left one of her passengers to die in the fiery wreck, according to charges filed Friday.
Mackenzie Rose Lene, of Minneapolis, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with hit-and-run criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation in connection with the single-vehicle crash on March 31 that killed 20-year-old Cole Jacob Thompson, of Blaine, and severely burned another of her passengers.
Lene was jailed Wednesday afternoon and remained jail in lieu of $10,000 bail. She is due in court on May 30. Her attorney, Joshua London, declined to comment on the allegations.
The passenger who survived has at least another month remaining in the hospital ahead of skin grafts and multiple surgeries, the criminal complaint noted. His name has yet to be released.
Court records show that Lene has been cited for speeding four times from April 2022 to July 2023, with her exceeding the limit anywhere from 21 to 29 miles per hour.
She also was charged nine months ago and convicted in Hennepin County of a misdemeanor for drinking and driving while under the age of 21 late at night in Maple Grove.
Thompson died one day before his 21st birthday.
“When Cole was born on April Fool’s Day,” his online obituary read, “he ‘understood the assignment’ and brought intense laughter and spread positivity everywhere he went. Throughout his life, ‘Caveman’ Cole was the CEO of adventure and had an authentic vibe like no other.”
A posting on an online fundraising campaign on behalf of the family read that “Early Easter morning, two Blaine police officers knocked on Kris and Carie Thompson’s door to deliver the worst news any parent can ever hear. Kris and Amy’s eldest son, Cole Jacob Thompson (Lorenzen), had passed away in a tragic car accident the night before. … Now, instead of celebrating Easter as a family, they were faced with the realization that Cole would never be coming home.”
According to the criminal complaint:
Officers arrived about 12:35 a.m. and saw that the car had hit a tree. Thompson was down in the road and appeared dead. A second male was standing near the car and appeared to have serious burns along with a concussion and three broken ribs.
Two people nearby told police they heard an explosion, ran toward the street and saw Lene and a man standing outside the car. One of the witnesses told police that he and another man pulled a passenger from the backseat and placed him on the ground. The other witness reported seeing Lene and a man leaving and climbing over a wall as emergency responders arrived.
Police traced the car to a home roughly three-fourths of a mile away and collected video surveillance from the area that showed a man and a woman, later determined to be Lene and one of her passengers, walking in the alley and speaking to each other.
“I’m going home as soon as possible,” Lene said. “I have to talk to my dad … ruined my life, don’t you understand.”
The man responded, “You’re going to be OK when you get home.” He then said, “I’ll help you find your car in the morning.”
Lene yelled, “It’s burnt the [expletive] up!”
The seriously burned passenger told officers days later that all four were in Lene’s car that evening and were “passing around a bottle of alcohol” before attending a birthday party. The passenger said Thompson didn’t want to drive, so Lene got behind the wheel and was “driving fast and aggressively.”
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.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
