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Senser Att'y: Cocaine In Victim's System At Time Of Death

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The criminal defense attorney for Amy Senser, who is charged with criminal vehicular homicide in a hit-and-run death last year, filed a motion to dismiss the criminal case.

Attorney Eric Nelson filed the motion in Hennepin County Court Friday afternoon.

He claims, in addition to a lack of probable cause, the victim had a high level of cocaine in his system at the time of his death.

Senser is charged in the death of Anousone Phanthavong, who was struck and killed the evening of Aug. 23, 2011 along the Riverside Avenue exit from westbound Interstate 94.

The motion also states that Phanthavong's autopsy showed he had cocaine in his system -- .60 mg/L -- and that a person with this amount of cocaine is "likely to be moving erratically and unpredictably."

Charges recently amended claim that Senser should've had at least four seconds to notice Phanthavong on the side of the road.

The charges also included a statement from a witness who claimed to have seen Senser's vehicle driving erratically, dipping between lanes and moving at inconsistent speeds.

After the amended charges were release, Nelson stated he did not think the complaint proved she knew she hit a person. He said the evidence against Senser is purely circumstantial.

Also on Friday, attorneys for both sides in a civil lawsuit against Senser met at a discovery conference, where the family of Phanthavong, and their attorneys, received limited access to evidence previously not disclosed to them.

Senser is the wife of former Minnesota Vikings player Joe Senser.

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