Victim's family: Drunken driver should be out of second chances

Jon Niemann was a 10-year Scott County sheriff's deputy, 37-year-old father of two sons, husband and volunteer firefighter.

Five years ago today, his family buried him. What would have been a day for his family to celebrate his life will now include a trip to the courtroom of Hennepin County District Judge Warren Sagstuen, who will decide whether to revoke probation and impose a sentence of up to four years on the man who killed Niemann while driving drunk.

"It won't be the best day, but it won't be the worst; we've had that," said Laurie Niemann-Pederson, the deputy's widow.

On Dec. 30, 2003, Niemann dropped off his 11-year-old son Nick for a sleepover and was headed home to Prior Lake when he was killed by Jason Reese on Hwy. 494 in Plymouth.

Reese weaved in and out of traffic before losing control of his car and smashing into oncoming vehicles. Within two hours of the crash, his blood-alcohol level was 0.13 percent. At the time, the legal limit was 0.10 percent. Witnesses said his car flipped into the median before crashing into Niemann's pickup truck.

Reese, then 22 and living in Albertville, pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide. Although state guidelines would have allowed for a four-year sentence, now-retired District Judge Diana Eagon gave him only eight months in jail. She wrote that he appeared to be a "low risk to reoffend."

But he has. Reese is now being held in the Hennepin County jail. While living in Nebraska for the past year, Reese was convicted of fourth-degree felony possession of marijuana (more than 1 pound). He was sent to Minneapolis after pleading guilty and serving a seven-month sentence in Nebraska.

The conviction was a violation of his probation for the vehicular homicide conviction.

Reese briefly appeared in court Friday, wearing jail-issue orange and plastic flipflops. His new lawyer, Kelly Madden, was at his side. Madden said she had just received the case and couldn't comment. She and Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Bev Benson are expecting to receive more details about the Nebraska case before today's hearing, which is scheduled for 11 a.m. It looks, however, as though Reese has blown what amounted to second chances -- both from the legal system and the forgiving family of his victim.

Sharon Gehrman-Driscoll, who tracks drunken-driving cases as closely as anyone for Minnesotans for Safe Driving, said Reese "was given every break that anybody could have possibly been given on a traffic crash that killed someone."

First, there was his light sentence, which also came with the requirement that he speak out to young people about what he had done. He failed to do so, Gehrman-Driscoll said. "Our organization reached out and told him we would assist him," she said, adding that founder Jon Cummings took the unusual step of visiting Reese in jail.

Gehrman-Driscoll said she hopes Sagstuen sends Reese to prison. "No deals," she said.

That now is what Niemann's widow wants, too.

Although Niemann-Pederson wasn't thrilled with Reese's initial sentence, she cut him a break on a $1 million civil judgment won by the family. If Reese graduated from an institution of higher learning, participated in drunken-driving panels and hit other benchmarks, he could lower the settlement by 90 percent. She said the agreement honored the values of her late husband. "I was trying to give this kid an opportunity to move forward and to let him know that we wanted to do what we could to help him. I don't think he grasped that," she said.

Niemann-Pederson will be in court today with her two sons -- Matt and Nick, now 16-- and her late husband's parents. She is forgiving, but "at the same time, there should be consequences for what you do, and we have never felt there were for him," she said.

She also wanted it known that she will come with sympathy for Reese's parents and no bitterness.

"I choose to look at the blessings that have happened in our family. I choose not to dwell on our loss. It was huge. But so many good things have come as a result of Jon's death," she said. "I believe we are taken care of not just by God, but by Jon."

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747