Presumed Gophers starting QB Mitch Leidner appears to have been sacked hard in the offseason by a video replay.
St. Louis Park police thank surveillance video for helping track down Leidner, who's accused of putting a "large dent" in a truck with his pickup and then driving off without fessing up with, say, a note as required by state law.
The bump-and-run occurred on April 5 in the parking lot of Open Box TV, located at Yosemite and Excelsior.
Police told one of my colleagues:
An employee (identified in police records as C.A.V.) at Open Box TV said that he came out and found a large dent on the driver's side of his truck. Surveillance video from a store across the street showed a pickup striking the employee's vehicle and then leaving. The employee recognized the occupants of the pickup as customers who had made a purchase in his store. He turned over the names to the officer. Police contacted Leidner, who reportedly admitted to feeling a small bump when he backed out of a parking spot. But he said that others in his pickup said there was no damage. Leidner said he then drove off without leaving information for the other vehicle's owner.
According to a colleague who talked to Gophers sports PR guy Chris Werle, Werle spoke Wednesday with Leidner about the incident. Leidner maintained that he "brushed another [vehicle] … looked and didn't see much" before leaving.
Werle said Leidner and C.A.V. have spoken and are working out a resolution.
In the meantime, Leidner awaits a June 11 court date to address the misdemeanor charge of driving off after hitting an unoccupied vehicle without leaving some identifying information.
Maybe it was too much to expect the young QB to remember that surveillance video is everywhere these days, as Solange, Beyoncé and Jay Z could attest.
Counting on crow for Wendy
Kris Humphries should provide the crow for talk show host Wendy Williams if she needs to eat some.
Williams has pledged to "eat crow" if Kim Kardashian's upcoming marriage to Kanye West lasts one day longer than her 72-day marriage to Humphries.
I'm giving the union more than 73 days but something way short of death-do-us-part respectability.
But first let's see if the rapper and the reality show star — who haven't been caught smiling publicly in a long time — even make it down the aisle. This would be her third trip, rumored to be a stinking, extravagant European event. The love they have for themselves will surely test the love they have for each other. But I can't think of better punishment for Kardashian than moody West, after how she treated Humphries for TV ratings.
After all the mean things Williams has said about the very decent Humphries, Kris should gleefully supply Wendy the crow. I am assuming she plans to eat it on the air? I imagine she'll get some chef to come up with a delicious preparation, provided it's legal to eat crow.
Edina grad rides 'Last Ship'
Look for 2008 Edina High and 2012 Juilliard grad Michael Curran-Dorsano, in a new TNT show, "The Last Ship," scheduled to debut June 22.
"It's kind of a post-apocalyptic, well, it's really apocalyptic," Curran-Dorsano told me last week from Los Angeles. "The world is being ravaged by a virus and I'm the navigator of the U.S.S. Nathan James that has a potential cure and is trying to stay afloat at sea long enough to save the world."
Curran-Dorsano told me the stars of the show are Eric Dane, Adam Baldwin and Rhona Mitra.
He has done a commercial for Hightail, the app, since moving to L.A. to be with his girlfriend, and in October he'll begin work on a "hush-hush animated TV show project."
Friends and his parents, Tony and Maureen Curran-Dorsano, are planning a viewing party for the show's premier in the Twin Cities, and Michael will be here for it.
C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count. Attachments are not opened.
C.J.: Jerry O'Connell gets support from Wendy Williams for talk show
