Shoreview man: After prison, another DWI

Jennifer Trautner, a Minnesota state police investigator, called her sister, Catherine Casey, at home, shortly after 7 a.m. Tuesday.

"Are you sitting down?" Trautner asked Casey, an investigator for the Minneapolis Police Department. Casey said she was.

"Klecker got arrested," said Trautner.

"Did he hurt anybody?" Casey asked. It was her worst fear.

Klecker, 32, is Anthony Klecker of Shoreview. He was driving drunk four years ago when he crashed his car on Interstate 494 in South St. Paul, causing the death of Casey's 16-year-old daughter, Deanna of Inver Grove Heights.

Casey was relieved to learn that no one was badly hurt in the latest incident. Klecker was in the Hennepin County jail on Tuesday. He allegedly struck a stalled vehicle on I-94 in Minneapolis, north of the Lowry Tunnel, early Tuesday morning.

The struck vehicle's 58-year-female driver and two men, ages 51 and 23, received minor injuries, according to the State Patrol. Klecker faces multiple charges. A breath test indicated that he was drunk, although results of a blood alcohol test could take several weeks.

"I hoped and prayed that when he was prison, he would have learned," said Casey at an afternoon news conference in a State Patrol conference room in St. Paul.

Hundreds of Minnesotans are killed or severely injured each year in crashes caused by drunken drivers. Another 35,000 are convicted of DWI. Experts say repeat offenders are often alcoholics who simply don't respond to treatment or tough punishment.

Chased suspect on foot

Capt. Matt Langer of the patrol said that Tuesday's incident unfolded around 2:20 a.m., after the State Police pulled a driver over on northbound I-94 for a traffic violation. Another trooper arrived.

Up ahead, a 2000 Toyota Tundra that had stalled in the middle northbound lane was hit from behind by a 1988 Ford Mustang. The troopers saw some smoke, Langer said, and someone who had been in the Tundra came over to tell them that the Mustang's driver was running away.

"It brought back all the feelings when Deanna was killed," said Casey. "I felt I knew it [another drunken driving accident] was going to happen, that he did not understand what he did."

In the October 2006 accident, Klecker crashed into a temporary concrete median in a construction zone on I-494 near Concord Street, pushing it into the path of a Chevrolet Beretta driven by Deanna Casey. She was driving home from her job at a McDonald's.

Moments later, a semitrailer truck clipped the median, causing its cab and one of its two trailers to flip onto their sides and hit Casey's car. She died at the scene. A breath test indicated that Klecker was under the influence.

Klecker, an Iraq War veteran, was convicted in June 2007. He received a year in jail and 10 years of supervised release if he met conditions, which included performing community service, paying restitution and getting treatment for alcoholism and post traumatic stress disorder.

Displaying a switchblade

"I believe Mr. Klecker should have been sent to prison initially for his significant crime that claimed the life of a young woman," Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said at the time. "I am pleased to see that the prison term has been imposed now."

Shari Burt, communications director for the state Corrections Department, reported Tuesday that among the conditions of Klecker's supervised release in January were that he comply with chemical dependency programming as directed by corrections representatives and not enter any business that sells alcohol as its primary purpose without the representatives' documented approval.

Because he remains under the Corrections Department's jurisdiction until April 2, 2011, he could be returned to prison for violating release conditions, in addition to any charges he may face as a result of Tuesday's accident.

'We'll be there'

Catherine Casey became active in Mothers Against Drunk Driving and tells her story around the state at victim impact panels, where convicted drunken drivers hear how families suffer from losing a loved one. She said she has heard others speak about how they caused someone's death and listened to Klecker's apology in court on the day he was sentenced. She said she did not feel that Klecker had been genuinely remorseful.

Catherine Casey's sister, Trautner, said she attended the court hearings after Klecker was arrested in her niece's death. She said the hearings in Klecker's current case will be no different.

"We'll be there," she said.