Crime & Safety

Woman Sentenced For Texting and Driving

Amanda Elizabeth Manzanares, 21, was ordered to serve 180 days in the county workhouse.

A woman charged with texting while driving in Minnetonka last October has been found guilty and sentenced for criminal vehicular operation, a felony.

Amanda Elizabeth Manzanares, 21, was driving without insurance and under a restricted instructional permit when she drove her car across the centerline of Excelsior Boulevard in Minnetonka and struck a man riding a motorcycle, badly injuring him. Prosecutors claim the mother of two was reaching for her cell phone to read an incoming text message at the time of the accident. 

Both of Manzanares' children, now ages 2 and 4, were in the backseat of her car when the accident happened.

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Manzanares was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to serve 180 days in the Hennepin County workhouse. With good behavior, she will serve 90 days with work release and another 30 days on electronic home monitoring.

Other charges against her, including the use of a wireless communication device while driving and parental endangerment of a child, were dropped.

The victim in this case, Barry Lawrence of Minnetonka, suffered injuries requiring more than $300,000 in surgeries and other medical care. Manzanares was also ordered to pay $8,400 in restitution for Lawrence.

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After retrieving Manzanares' cell phone at the scene, Minnetonka police investigators found a series of text message exchanges and calls on Manzanares' phone that were made and received in the minutes surrounding the collision. 

In Minnesota, it is illegal for drivers to read, compose or send texts and emails or to access the Web on a wireless device while the vehicle is in motion or a part of traffic—including at a stoplight or while stuck in traffic.


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