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Crime, Law and Justice
MPR News Staff

State trooper pleads not guilty to charges stemming from fatal Rochester crash

Crashed vehicles
The scene of a multi-car collision at the intersection of Memorial Parkway Southwest and 12th Street Southwest, just north of Apache Mall, in Rochester on May 18. The crash involved a State Patrol squad car, and a state trooper faces charges.
Maya Giron | Post Bulletin

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A Minnesota state trooper on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from a fatal crash while on duty earlier this year in Rochester.

Trooper Shane Roper is charged with manslaughter, criminal vehicular homicide and seven other counts in connection with the May 18 crash that killed 18-year-old Olivia Flores and injured five others.

At Thursday’s hearing, Olmsted County Judge Christa Daily allowed Roper to remain free without bond provided that he abide by a list of conditions including not driving.

The Rochester Post-Bulletin reported that Roper entered his not-guilty plea with dozens of Flores’ family members and friends were in the courtroom.

young woman with dark hair and pom poms laying on bleachers
Olivia Flores, 18, of Owatonna died in May after a crash involving a State Patrol trooper who was pursuing another vehicle through a Rochester intersection.
GoFundMe

The charges allege that Roper, while pursuing a driver “suspected of committing a petty traffic offense,” was traveling at 83 mph in a 40 mph zone near Apache Mall — without his emergency lights activated. According to the criminal complaint, Roper did not have time to slow down or move his squad car out of the way when he struck the passenger side of a Ford Focus at a minimum of 55 mph. The impact caused both the Focus and the squad to collide with an SUV.

Flores, who was preparing to graduate from Owatonna High School at the time of the crash and was an avid member of the cheerleading team, was a passenger in the Focus.

The charges also allege that Roper’s State Patrol discipline records show he was involved in four prior crashes while driving his squad car “either due to inattentive driving or excessive speed.” He received suspensions for two of those crashes.

Roper, 32, has been a state trooper for about eight years. He’s due back in court on Nov. 21. A jury trial is tentatively scheduled for to begin in late March.