Family of Olivia Flores files wrongful-death suit against former state trooper

Weeks after what would have been Olivia Flores’ 19th birthday, her family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the former Minnesota state trooper involved in the May crash that killed her.

In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court, Carlos and Stephanie Flores allege that Shane Roper, 32, “consciously disregarded” the safety of others when he crashed his car into a vehicle occupied by their daughter outside Rochester’s Apache Mall on May 18. Olivia Flores died the next day from blunt force injuries to her head and torso. Five others were seriously injured in the three-car wreck.

Video from the dashcam and body-worn camera show Roper did not have his emergency signals activated as he accelerated to 83 mph — twice the posted speed limit — just before reaching the intersection.

“Roper’s conscious disregard for the health, safety, and substantive due process rights of Ms. Flores, and others, constitutes criminal recklessness and deliberate indifference,” lawyers for the family wrote. “Such indifference shocks the conscience under the specific circumstances of this case.”

The Flores family is seeking “compensatory damages, general damages, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs” from Roper. Attorneys for the family declined to say the specific amount they are seeking.

In addition to the civil suit, Roper faces nine criminal charges, including felony charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminal vehicular homicide, for his role in the fatal wreck. Roper has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He is due back in court in February.

Roper was fired from the patrol in early September after an internal investigation found there was “no justification” for the way he was driving at the time of the crash. The report said his conduct was “reckless” and reflected “discredit on the agency.”

Roper continued to display a pattern of troubling conduct in the hours leading up the crash, the suit argues. Records included in the lawsuit show Roper had engaged in excessive speeds at least five times while on duty that day, at one point reaching speeds of 135 mph while traveling on a 55-mph road.

In many cases, Roper was found to have been pursuing minor traffic offenders without activating his emergency signals. In the case of the fatal crash, Roper originally told Rochester police he believed his lights were on when he approached the intersection. Police evidence shows that was not the case.

“Roper’s statement was knowingly untruthful, self-serving, and unsuccessfully attempted to justify his actions after the fact,” wrote the Flores’ attorneys, Tom Braun and Dan McIntosh.

Roper’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, declined to comment for this story. In October, Nelson asked the court to dismiss eight of the nine charges against Roper, arguing the state has “failed to meet its burden of offering direct evidence” that Roper’s driving was the proximate cause of Flores’ death.

Flores’ attorneys, meanwhile, have called on the state to open an investigation into the “organizational failures” that led up to the crash. Reached Thursday, Minnesota State Patrol spokesperson Lt. Mike Lee declined to say whether the patrol has reviewed any protocols in light of the case.

Flores, a captain for the Owatonna High School cheerleading squad, died weeks before she was set to graduate. Family and friends remember her as a kind soul with a bubbly personality who wasn’t afraid to stand up for others.