Unlicensed driver sentenced to 5 months for fatally hitting priest on bicycle in Rosemount

A Minneapolis man with a penchant for driving without a license received a sentence of five months in jail for straying onto the shoulder of a Dakota County road and fatally hitting a bicyclist 2½ years ago.

Trejean D. Curry, 28, of Minneapolis was sentenced in Dakota County District Court after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the collision on Oct. 25, 2021, in Rosemount that killed the Rev. Dennis Dempsey, who came to Risen Savior Roman Catholic Church in Burnsville just three months earlier.

The sentence from Judge Dannia Edwards includes probation of no more than five years and an order to perform 40 hours of community work service.

Dempsey, 73, was struck from behind while both he and Curry were heading west on County Road 42 near W. 145th Street. Dempsey died at the scene.

“From a review of his driving record, it appears that he has never had a driver’s license in MN, but yet has multiple driving offenses on his driving record,” read a court filing from law enforcement soon after the case was filed.

According to court records, Curry has 10 convictions for operating a vehicle while his driving privileges were revoked, six for lack of insurance, two for speeding, two for instructional permit violations, one for expired tabs and one for passing another vehicle in a prohibited area.

The criminal vehicular homicide case against Curry accused him of operating the car in a grossly negligent manner on that fall afternoon, specifically that he was driving on the shoulder and that a forensic analysis of his cellphone revealed that the screen was illuminated while a music app was in use, the complaint read.

Law enforcement testing of Curry’s blood found that neither alcohol nor drugs played a role in the crash.

Marianne Brass, Risen Savior parish communications director, said Dempsey often rode his bike to the church from the rectory, about a mile away in Apple Valley.

Dempsey came to Risen Savior in July 2021 after two years of missionary work in Venezuela. Before that, the Minneapolis native was at the Church of St. Dominic in Northfield for 15 years after a seven-year missionary stint in Venezuela.

According to the criminal complaint:

Curry told police at the crash scene that the bicyclist swerved in front of him as he drove on the road. He also said other vehicles close by prevented him from avoiding a collision.

A State Patrol analysis of the crash revealed that Curry’s car left behind two “virtually straight ahead” skid marks on the shoulder just before the bicycle “made impact with the middle of [Curry’s] front license plate.”