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For the top news briefs,
- A 45-year old Northfield man has been charged in connection with a fatal snowmobile crash that occurred last Thursday. Todd Dale Olson has been charged in Rice County with criminal vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an accident and driving under the influence of alcohol. 41-year-old David Markey died in the incident. According to the criminal complaint, Olson, Markey and Adam Tulkki were snowmobiling at around 3:00 Thursday morning, February 18th. Tulkki was in front of the other two, when he noticed lights bouncing around behind him. When Tulkki went back to see what happened, he found Olson and Markey off their snowmobiles and laying on the ground—with Markey in and out of consciousness. Tulkki left on his snowmobile to determine where they were and returned 5 minutes later, still unsure of their whereabouts. Tulkki says that’s when Olson said he would go to get some help and left on the snowmobile not involved in the crash. He never returned to the scene. Tulkki then called 911. Tulkki told police the three had been bar hopping starting in the afternoon in Castle Rock, Randolph, Dennison and Millersburg. Rice County Sheriff, Richard Cook says it’s not clear if Markey was on the snowmobile when the collision occurred. He says police are awaiting the results from the medical examiner. Police later found Olson at Markey’s home in Northfield. Olson told police he didn’t call 911 because he was scared. Olson later admitted to police that he had t-boned Markey in the middle of a trail. Police performed sobriety tests on Olson, which Olson failed—with an alcohol concentration of .230. Olson has a previous third degree DWI conviction in Dakota County, and two DUIs in Arizona. Olson faces up to 31 years in prison and fines up to $63,000 or both if convicted on all counts.
- (AP) Lakeville police have finished their investigation into a crash that killed three people when a teen driver apparently drove his pickup over the center line. Police Chief Thomas Vonhof says the case has been forwarded to Dakota County prosecutors, who will decide whether to file criminal charges. The process is expected to take a few weeks. It happened in December when the pickup drove into oncoming traffic on County Road 50 in Lakeville and struck a sedan. The 17-year-old pickup driver was seriously hurt. Three people in the sedan were killed, they were Shirley Ann Iverson, her daughter Debra Ann Buhmann and 8-year-old granddaughter Alexis Rose Iverson. Police have said they were investigating whether the 17-year-old was talking on a cell phone or texting.
