No Prison For Woodbury Woman In Crash That Killed Former Mayor

WOODBURY, MN — A Woodbury woman is set to avoid a prison sentence after agreeing to a plea deal in connection with the death of a former Washington County mayor.

Brenda Lee Hafemann, 54, filed paperwork Monday indicating that she will plead guilty to one count of criminal vehicular homicide – operating a motor vehicle in a grossly negligent manner.

The plea deal calls for Hafemann to serve one year in the workhouse, followed by five years of probation. A four-year prison sentence will be stayed if Hafemann does not violate the terms of her probation, which include a provision that she cannot drive, according to the agreement filed in Washington County court.

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Hafemann was charged with criminal vehicular homicide in November 2019 after police said she hit and killed former Lakeland Shores Mayor Randy Kopesky, 65, while he was standing on the shoulder of Interstate 94.

Police were called around 8:50 a.m. Nov. 3, 2019, to a crash on westbound I-94 in West Lakeland Township, where officers found Kopesky’s body and his damaged SUV, according to the criminal complaint filed against Hafemann.

Police said they found Hafemann in her car about a quarter-mile away, parked on the interstate’s shoulder. There was blood on the windshield of her car, which sustained “heavy” front-end damage, the complaint said.

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Hafemann “appeared dazed” and told officers she didn’t know what she had hit, police said. Hafemann said she didn’t see any vehicles on the side of the road before the crash, then “continued to drive for a while” before reversing down the shoulder of I-94 toward the scene of the crash, the complaint said.

A reconstruction of the crash showed Hafemann was driving on the shoulder of I-94 before “sideswiping” Kopesky, who was standing on the driver’s side of his SUV, which was parked more than 3 feet from the fog line on the side of the road, according to the criminal complaint.

Police said Kopesky was thrown about 140 feet into a ditch along the interstate after he was hit. Hafemann drove more than a quarter-mile before stopping and backing up, the complaint said.

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Hafemann admitted “that she was not paying any attention to the roadway” when she hit Kopesky, according to the complaint.

Police said Hafemann was involved in two crashes in 2018, including one in which officers “concluded that the only contributing factor to the crash was that (Hafemann) was operating the vehicle in a ‘careless, negligent, or erratic manner.’”

She crashed in December 2018 because she was driving at “excess speed” and rear-ended another vehicle on Highway 35 in Wisconsin several months later, according to the complaint. Witnesses to that crash told police that Hafemann was “traveling at a high rate of speed and simply crashed into the vehicle in front of her that was driving within the speed limit,” the complaint said.

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The Minnesota State Patrol received 10 complaints from 2018-2019 about Hafemann’s vehicle, while there also were multiple driving-related complaints about Hafemann’s vehicle between 2016 and 2019 in Pierce County, Wisconsin, according to the complaint.

The complaint said Hafemann was involved in more than 30 driving-related complaints or traffic stops from 2015-2019 and four crashes from 2018-2019, including the crash that killed Kopesky.

Washington County Judge Douglas Meslow is scheduled to review Hafemann’s plea agreement at a sentencing hearing Sept. 9, the Star Tribune reported.

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