A Dakota County judge on Wednesday dismissed a grand jury homicide indictment against a Rosemount woman after finding that it was missing the signature of the jury foreperson and didn't contain a statement of the facts.
But the prosecutor promptly filed a criminal complaint containing the same counts, meaning the county will continue to pursue its case against Brittany Rose Mertz, 20, in connection with a head-on crash that killed a woman and two small children in Inver Grove Heights in April 2008.
Mertz, who was indicted in January, was allegedly not looking at the road when her car, northbound on Hwy. 52, crossed the median near 117th Street and hit another car head-on.
Her attorney, Bill Sherry of Apple Valley, said he believes there was no gross negligence involved. That's a necessary element for charges of criminal vehicular homicide.
After District Judge Edward Lynch threw out the seven-count indictment, the prosecutor responded by filing the criminal complaint, which is a way of charging somebody with a crime that doesn't require a grand jury indictment.
Sherry objected, saying the complaint comes 706 days after the accident. He called that "an unnecessary delay" that violates his client's right to a speedy trial. Sherry said it is difficult if nearly impossible for him to build a defense this long after the accident, and he asked the judge to dismiss the case for those reasons and in the furtherance of justice.
The grand jury had indicted Mertz, formerly known by her maiden name of Brittany Krueger, on three counts of criminal vehicular homicide, plus four lesser counts.
Killed were the other driver, Brittany Carlson, 30, of Zumbrota, Minn.; her 2-year-old son, Brandon Dion-Faris Carlson, who died two weeks after the accident; and Tamaya Rose Phillips, 4, of Rosemount, who died the day after the collision. She was the daughter of Nicole Phillips and Claude Washington.
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