A sheriff's sergeant has been cleared of any wrongdoing after a January crash left a woman dead.
A State Patrol investigation determined that Rice County Sheriff's Sgt. Trevor Peterson did not have time to react about 2 a.m. Jan. 29, when he hit 52-year-old Stephanie Wesley, who was down on Hwy. 60 near Holland Avenue just east of Morristown.
That conclusion led to Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrom, who reviewed the findings on behalf of the Rice County Attorney's Office in order to avoid a conflict of interest, to decline to charge Peterson with a crime.
Peterson was driving at or below the posted speed limit, the patrol concluded. He was not responding to an emergency at the time.
The patrol found that Wesley, of Faribault, died at the scene and had a blood alcohol content level of 0.235% at the time of the crash, Rice County Attorney John Fossum said in his statement Saturday announcing the determination to not charge Peterson.
"The investigation into this tragic incident is now closed," read Saturday's statement from Fossum. "We appreciate the careful work of the Minnesota State Patrol in completing the investigation and the assistance of the Olmsted County attorney in reviewing this file for potential charges."
