By Teri Knight, News Director
A four car crash on I-35 at Hwy 19 on Friday took the life of an Edina man. All four vehicles were traveling southbound when they collided. 55 year old Michael Rae Bendel-Stenzel was killed. His two passengers were airlifted to HCMC with non life threatening injuries. Two others in another vehicle were transported by ground to Faribault. There were two others in another vehicle, neither of them suffered any injuries. Rice County Sheriff’s Deputies, Northfield and Lonsdale Police and Ambulance assisted the State Patrol. No alcohol was involved, all were wearing their seatbelts. The investigation continues.
Body cams, data privacy and disclosure
While many communities consider police body cameras, Rice County Attorney John Fossum discussed Data Privacy. Fossum said, “anything related to an investigation is confidential or private until the investigation is closed”. A concern is to ensure that body camera footage of a medical situation is not made public, Fossum added, “but the rest of it eventually does become public information”. It comes back to accountability for all involved. Fossum said there are constitutional requirements that attorneys disclose information about those who testify in court, “and that includes the Officers and all other witnesses. If we know that that person has done something that makes them not credible, that they’ve lied about something in the past, a crime, misdemeanor level or higher, we have an obligation to release that stuff. We call it, we use a shorthand for it Brady materials”. It’s based on a U.S. Supreme Court case from 1963 and another. Those cases created guidelines to ensure that prosecutors are giving up information to the Defense, in particular if there are credibility issues with the police officers and/or the criminals. Fossum has this on the County website. Brady Giglio policy 3-11-2020_202003121631260077
Arts Corridor construction, quiet zone RR xing and Hwy 246 roundabout update
The 2019 Northfield street project wound up being pushed to 2020 as the price tag skyrocketed after Northfield Council pondered the amenities on 3rd street from Longfellow School to the railroad tracks. There are bumpouts with cement seating and plantings along with other benches and a median between Hwy 3 and the railroad tracks as what council refers to as the Arts Corridor. Administrator Martig said the railroad crossing has taken additional time as they work to make the area ready to be a quiet zone. Martig said, “we want to incrementally convert any of those railroad crossings into quiet zone designated crossings that would allow the engineer to not blow the horn in those cases or have some limitations with that in the future”. There was a delay in the roundabout at Hwy 246 and Jefferson Pkwy. The plan is to open it up by mid October. Commenting on the underpasses, Martig said, “I think one of the things people are concerned about when they think about a tunnel is it’s going to be dark and it’s going to be a scary place. And I can tell even without lighting right now, it’s actually a lot shorter than I had even envisioned, so it’s nice and light through there and we’ll have some lights and there’s going to be an art piece” inside. The artwork won’t be placed until next Spring.
