Teen faces 6 charges in crash that killed father, daughter

Updated: 10:25 a.m. | Posted: 6 a.m.

A teenage driver ignored the pleas of a passenger to stop texting just before slamming into a van and killing a father and his 10-year-old daughter, according to a juvenile petition filed in Sherburne County District Court.

The 17-year-old girl is charged with two counts each of vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation, texting and driving, and driving without a valid license. Investigators searched the girl's cellphone and determined she sent and received multiple messages on Facebook just before she ran a red light and struck a van last July between Becker and Big Lake, prosecutors said.

The van's driver, Charles Maurer, 54, of Becker, and his daughter, Cassy, were killed. Two others in the van survived their injuries.

Investigators initially identified the girl's 18-year-old boyfriend as the driver of the pickup that struck the van, but he and other passengers told state troopers that the 17-year-old was behind the wheel. The girl and three passengers in the pickup were also injured.

The juvenile charging petition said the teen never applied the brakes before blowing through the intersection as a passenger yelled "red light, red light!"

"It is an illusion to believe that texting while driving is not dangerous behavior," said Lt. Tiffani Schweigart of the Minnesota State Patrol, the lead investigating agency. "This behavior is just as dangerous as DWI, in that lives can change or be lost in the fraction of a second."

Sixty-one deaths and more than 7,000 injuries were attributed to either driver inattention or distraction last year in Minnesota, according to the state Department of Public Safety.