In first court appearance, driver charged in Park Tavern crash says his alcohol use is not a problem

In his first court appearance on charges that he killed two people and injured nine others by driving drunk and crashing his SUV into the patio at Park Tavern on Labor Day weekend, Steven Frane Bailey said his use of alcohol was not a problem.

Bailey, 56, stood calmly in an orange jumpsuit while making his first court appearance at the Hennepin County Public Safety Facility in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday. He glanced occasionally at the families and friends of the victims of the crash who packed the courtroom. He is charged with six felonies, including two counts of criminal vehicular homicide while driving under the influence.

Assistant County Attorney Erin Goltz told Judge Juan Hoyos that Bailey denied “any problematic use of drugs or alcohol” during an evaluation before his first appearance. Goltz said that lack of self-awareness made Bailey a continued threat to the public and asked for $1 million bail.

Defense attorney Tom Sieben, representing Bailey, argued that while his client was aware of the gravity of the situation, he was not a flight risk, was actively employed and had lived at the same house for 24 years. Sieben asked for $250,000 bail.

He added that Bailey’s entire criminal history stemmed from alcohol use.

“We understand the loss to many people in this courtroom here and that’s horrible,” Sieben said. “But if Steven Bailey is not drinking alcohol, Steven Bailey has never had an interaction with the law.”

Hoyos set bail at $500,000 with several conditions, including that Bailey take a substance use disorder assessment, not drink alcohol, stay away from the victims and their families, avoid Park Tavern and remain on electronic home monitoring. His next court appearance was tentatively set for Oct. 1.

Bailey’s two daughters sat in the front row during the hearing, wiping away tears. Afterward, they said they had spoken with their father briefly and that he was “really, really remorseful.” The two women, who asked not to be named, said Bailey raised them both and they had different mothers.

A victim advocate with the county spoke at length with families and friends of the victims after the hearing. The group left without commenting.

Bailey’s interactions with the law while under the influence of alcohol are lengthy. After he crashed into the patio at Park Tavern on Sunday night, police administered a preliminary breath test at Hennepin County Medical Center. Bailey’s blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.325%, four times the legal limit in Minnesota of 0.08%. More precise results from a test of his blood are pending.

The crash killed 30-year-old employee Kristina Marie Folkerts of St. Louis Park, and customer Gabriel Quinn Harvey of Rosemount, a 30-year-old health unit coordinator at nearby Methodist Hospital and nursing school student, who was there with others celebrating a colleague who was departing.

The crash also injured nine others, including Laura Kathleen Knutsen and Tegan Laine D’Albani, who remained in serious condition at HCMC as of Wednesday afternoon.

Court documents show Bailey has five previous convictions for drunken driving. The first came in Wisconsin when he was 17 years old. He had additional convictions for drunken driving in Wabasha County in 1993 and Hennepin County in 1998. Files for those cases are no longer public.

In 2014, he was found guilty of DWI after police stopped him in Waseca and measured his blood-alcohol content at 0.16%, twice the legal limit.

He was convicted again in 2015 after a police officer in Plymouth did a random registration check and saw Bailey’s driving privileges had been canceled because of the previous drunken-driving offense. A preliminary breath test administered to Bailey about 90 minutes after that stop measured his blood-alcohol content at 0.08%, the minimum needed to allege intoxication.

At the time of Sunday’s crash, Bailey had a valid driver’s license, state officials said.

Park Tavern reopened Wednesday after being closed since the crash. Phil Weber, who has owned the restaurant and bowling alley since 1980, offered counseling services to employees before the restaurant’s reopening. While workers are still grieving, he said he hopes the return to normal operations can help people process the trauma.

“It’s hard, but I’m just trying to get everybody to move forward now,” Weber said. “Grieving’s a natural reaction we all go through. But I think it’s important to get back to whatever daily routine we do at the tavern. It’s therapeutic.”

The St. Louis Park Police Department believes more people were hurt in the crash. Anyone injured who hasn’t yet been interviewed can call the department at 952-924-2165 and leave their full name, contact information and connection to the incident so an investigator can call back. Anyone who witnessed any part of the crash and captured video or photos is asked to submit them online to police at bit.ly/parktavernvehicleincident.

Louis Krauss contributed to this story.