Man accused of driving car into outdoor patio in St. Louis Park faces 11 criminal charges
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The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed 11 criminal charges Tuesday against the man they say killed two people and injured nine others at a St. Louis Park restaurant Sunday night. According to the charges, Steven Frane Bailey, 56, drove his car into the outdoor patio at the Park Tavern.
Kristina Folkerts, a server at Park Tavern, and Gabe Harvey, a patron on the patio, were killed. Both were 30 years old, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner.
Bailey is charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and nine counts of criminal vehicular operation.
Prosecutors say officers heard Bailey talking on his phone after the crash saying, “I hit the gas instead of the brake and went right through a thing,” and “I’m probably going to jail.”
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Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty says Bailey’s blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit, at .325. A blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.3 to 0.4 percent can result in alcohol poisoning and loss of consciousness, and a BAC of 0.4 percent or more can be fatal, according to Cleveland Clinic.
“Bailey could have simply decided to stay home or take a Lyft rather than driving while intoxicated,” said Moriarty. “This tragedy killed two people and injured several others, and it was entirely avoidable.”
Investigators said Bailey was going 30 to 45 miles per hour when he drove into the patio. His vehicle stopped only after hitting several boulders at the base of a steep hill.
Several children were present at the time but were not hurt. Moriarty said the kids were on their way to go bowling and could have been hurt had they stayed on the patio. She said the presence of children allows prosecutors to request a longer sentence than would typically be applied.
Bailey was convicted of drunk driving in Minnesota twice. In 2014, he received a 90-day suspended sentence after pleading guilty to drunk driving in Waseca County and got a year of supervised probation. Five months after his sentencing hearing in that case, Bailey was pulled over for DWI again, this time in Plymouth.
He was still on probation at the time, and the judge in that case sentenced Bailey to five days in the workhouse and 30 days on electronic home monitoring plus alcohol monitoring.