Trooper Indicted On Manslaughter, Careless Driving In Double Fatal Crash

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A veteran State Patrol trooper is now charged with killing a Minnesota couple in a car crash.

A grand jury indicted Scott Reps. He's charged with manslaughter and failure to drive with due care because jurors apparently thought he was going too fast.

Reps had his lights and sirens on during an emergency call when he collided with a car in Cannon Falls on the Fourth of July.

Geneva and Norman Scott, passengers in the car Reps collided with, died as a result of the crash.

Witnesses that day said the Cannon Falls couple made a left hand turn, right into the path of Trooper Scott Reps.

"Once we seen it, it was unbelievable how the cars flew and everything else. It was crazy," Doug Rechtigel said.

Reps was responding to a deer versus motorcycle accident about 17 miles away. He was injured by the impact. The Scotts died at the scene. And now, a Goodhue County grand jury indicted Reps on two counts of manslaughter and one count of failure to drive with due care.

Assistant Winona County attorney Kevin O'Laughlin was appointed a special attorney to handle the case.

"You treat everyone with the pursuit of justice. You try and treat everyone the same, no better no worse. You don't take the fact that they are law enforcement officer into special consideration either in the positive or the negative," O'Laughlin said.

The indictment states Rep drove on a "highway at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions."

But Frederic Bruno, the attorney for Reps, said he was acting responsibly.

He went on to say, "profound evidentiary and procedural errors were committed by the Assistant Winona County Attorneys in the presentation of this case. Those errors led to an incorrect result."

O'Laughlin's response: "I will try the case in the courtroom, not in the media."

The Scott family called this, "a sad situation," and said "they will keep the Trooper and his family in their thoughts and prayers."

Reps is still employed as a Trooper. He is currently on medical leave. The 48-year-old will be back in court in late February.