A man who has been continually caught driving without a license was jailed Tuesday after being charged with straying onto the shoulder of a south metro road and fatally hitting a bicyclist.
Trejean D. Curry, 26, of Minneapolis, was charged in Dakota County District Court last week with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the Oct. 25 collision in Rosemount that killed the Rev. Dennis Dempsey, who came to the Risen Savior Roman Catholic Church in Burnsville just three months earlier.
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.
Curry was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
"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," reads a court filing from law enforcement requesting that bail be set at $75,000.
In the past six years, the filing continued, Curry has had nine convictions for operating a vehicle while his driving privileges were revoked, five for lack of insurance, two for speeding, and one each for an instructional permit violation and passing another vehicle in a prohibited area.
He also has a speeding case pending in Dakota County from May 2021, when he was cited for driving 81 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone, again with no driver's license and no insurance. The citation noted that a woman and three small children were passengers.
The criminal vehicular homicide case against Curry accuses 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 by law enforcement revealed that the screen was illuminated while a music app was in use, the complaint read.
