Police: Minnetonka Driver Texted 20 Seconds Before Serious Crash

Phone records show that a Minnetonka driver sent a text message just 20 seconds before someone called 911 to report that she’d hit a pedestrian, according to charging documents released Tuesday.

Officers went to County Road 101 and Excelsior Boulevard after receiving a 911 call 14 seconds after 4:47 p.m. June 15, Officer Markham Stock wrote in the documents. They arrived to find a woman in the fetal position on her right side. She was bleeding from her nose and said her hip hurt. The woman was later diagnosed with multiple pelvic fractures.

A white SUV driven by 24-year-old Stephanie Marie Deloye was stopped in the road next to the woman. Witnesses told officers that Deloye hit the woman in the crosswalk while making a turn. They said she didn’t try to stop before she hit the victim and that she didn’t try to get out to help after the incident, according to the court documents.

Deloye was still seated in the SUV with her seat belt fastened when officers arrived. They noted that she had her cell phone in her lap and that it was turned on. Deloye told police the windshield pillar kept her from seeing the pedestrian. She also denied texting or using her phone while driving, saying that she sent her last text before she left home, which was about four minutes away.

However, cell phone records showed she sent a text message at 4:45:22, received a text message at 4:46:15 and sent another text at 4:46:54—just 20 seconds before the 911 call at 4:47:14.

When officers confronted Deloye with the phone records, she admitted that she had lied about texting and driving but said she had last texted while at a traffic light before the incident, according to the charging documents.

Prosecutors have charged her with felony criminal vehicular operation—which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.