A plea deal is on the table for the son of a former St. Paul state representative accused of running a red light just off Interstate 35W in south Minneapolis last summer and crashing into a sedan, killing five young women.

At a Tuesday pretrial hearing in Hennepin County District Court, Assistant County Attorney Paige Starkey read in court the offer for Derrick John Thompson: A prison term between 32½ and nearly 39 years for pleading guilty to five counts of criminal vehicular homicide for causing a collision and leaving the scene.

Derrick John Thompson (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

Meanwhile, five counts of criminal vehicular homicide for operating a vehicle in a grossly negligent manner would be dismissed under terms of the potential deal.

Starkey said Tuesday the plea offer will remain open until the next court date, which is set for Nov. 4. A trial, meanwhile, is scheduled to start Dec. 2.

Thompson, 28, of Brooklyn Park, did not speak at Tuesday’s hearing, which lasted just shy of seven minutes. His attorney didn’t say in court whether he would accept the plea deal.

The hearing was attended by family members and friends of the young women who died; some of them cried as they left the courtroom.

The charges say that Thompson sped through a red light at Lake Street and Second Avenue and struck a Honda Civic with five women inside just after 10 p.m. on June 16, 2023.

Pronounced dead at the scene were Salma Mohamed Abdikadir, 20, of St. Louis Park; Sabiriin Mohamoud Ali, 17, of Bloomington; Sahra Liban Gesaade, 20, of Brooklyn Center; Sagal Burhaan Hersi, 19, of Minneapolis; and Siham Adan Odhowa, 19, of Minneapolis. The young women had been returning from preparing for a friend’s wedding.

Thompson, who also faces federal charges in connection with the crash, is the son of former Minnesota Rep. John Thompson, who represented St. Paul’s East Side for one term beginning in 2021.

Derrick Thompson has been in federal custody at the Sherburne County Jail since Dec. 18, when he was arraigned in federal court. A jury trial in that case is scheduled for Oct. 7.

Clocked at 95 mph on highway

A Minnesota State Patrol trooper clocked Thompson driving a sport-utility vehicle 95 mph in a 55-mph zone about 10:10 p.m. just before the crash, according to the Hennepin County criminal complaint.

The complaint also alleges:

Before the trooper could catch up or turn on the squad’s emergency lights or sirens, Thompson “abruptly cut across all four lanes of traffic” and exited at Lake Street. Thompson drove down the exit ramp and through the intersection without stopping or slowing for the red light. The Honda had a green light and was traveling west on Lake Street.

Law enforcement found a rental car receipt on the ground outside the Cadillac SUV and it listed the renter as Derrick Thompson. Thompson rented the vehicle from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport about 25 minutes before the crash.

Left: Sagal Burhaan Hersi, 19, of Minneapolis, and Siham Adan Odhowa, 19, of Minneapolis. Top right: Sabiriin Mohamoud Ali, 17, of Bloomington . Bottom right: Sahra Liban Gesaade, 20, of Brooklyn Center, and Salma Mohamed Abdikadir, 20, of St. Louis Park. All five died when the driver of another vehicle crashed into their vehicle in Minneapolis on June 16, 2023. (Courtesy of the Dar Al Farooq Center)

In federal court, Thompson stands charged with intent to sell fentanyl and two counts related to illegal possession of a firearm. Both were allegedly found in the vehicle after the collision. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.

The county attorney’s office has not reached a “global resolution” with federal prosecutors, so the two cases remain separate “at this time,” Starkey said Tuesday. “I think that there’s a difference in terms of presumption on whether federal time is concurrent or consecutive,” she said.

In 2020, Thompson was convicted in California in a 2018 case, in which he fled from officers in a vehicle and struck a woman. She was in a coma for several weeks. He was on probation in the case at the time of the Minneapolis crash.

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A southern Minnesota dam and nearby bridge that almost collapsed in June after a bout of heavy rain and prompted a federal emergency declaration will be torn down, officials said Tuesday.

The Blue Earth County Board of Commissioners voted to remove the Rapidan Dam near the city of Mankato, about 80 miles south of Minneapolis-St. Paul, and replace the County Road 9 bridge, both of which were at risk of crumbling. The officials jump-started what will likely be a yearslong rebuilding process as the structural integrity of the dam and bridge remain uncertain.

The Blue Earth River’s water levels rose dramatically in late June after heavy rain pummeled the Upper Midwest for days. While the structures held up in the end, floodwaters forged a new river channel around the dam and cut deeply into a steep riverbank, toppling utility poles, wrecking an Xcel Energy substation, swallowing a home and forcing the removal of a beloved store and eatery.

With the specter of a future collapse still on the minds of a wary local community, officials said they had to act in the name of public safety. But they are concerned about the bridge closure’s impact on local farmers, one of the rural area’s primary economic drivers.

“We know that this is a rural community and they use (the bridge) for getting farm to market, and we know the fall harvest is coming up and it’s going to be inconvenient,” said Jessica Anderson, a spokesperson for Blue Earth County. “But safety has been our priority from Day One. And we cannot afford to jeopardize that.”

This combination of satellite images provided by MaxarTechnologies shows views of the Rapidan Dam on Minnesota’s Blue Earth River, south of Mankato, on Sept. 6, 2011, top, and bottom on June 26, 2024, after floodwaters overcame parts of the structure following days of heavy rainfall. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)

Vance Stuehrenberg, a Blue Earth County commissioner, said farmers might have to travel upward of 45 minutes around the bridge to reach their fields.

Floodwaters washed away large amounts of sediment, causing instability to the bridge’s supporting piers, built atop sandstone bedrock. The timeline for rebuilding it is unclear, but Anderson said it would be a matter of “years, not months.”

It was also unclear Tuesday how much the rebuilding will cost. Studies commissioned by the county in 2021 found repairing the dam would cost $15 million and removing it would cost $82 million, but Anderson said environmental conditions have changed since then when the sediment was washed downstream.

The next step will be securing funding to finance the repairs, which could come from a combination of state and federal sources. The county is working to develop a plan with federal agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Anderson said.

A federal disaster declaration was approved for Blue Earth County, and local officials said the additional resources will be critical for rebuilding efforts.

Stuehrenberg is also concerned about the impact the closure could have on recreation opportunities near the dam, which is a popular area for bike riding. Minnesota Gov. and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, who visited the dam during the flooding, is among those who used to ride his bike on a nearby trail when he lived in Mankato.

The Rapidan Dam is over a century old, finished in 1910. While it was built to generate electricity, it has been damaged by several rounds of flooding in recent decades. The dam hasn’t been producing power, as previous floods knocked out that small source of revenue.

There are roughly 90,000 significant dams in the U.S. At least 4,000 are in poor or unsatisfactory condition and could kill people and harm the environment if they failed, according to data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They need inspections, upgrades and even emergency repairs.

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The Minnesota Orchestra has named Brent Assink, former executive director of the San Francisco Symphony and prior president of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, to serve as its interim president and CEO.

Assink will take over from Michelle Miller Burns, who has led the orchestra since 2018 and departs in mid-September for the top administrative role with the Dallas Symphony. Based in Pasadena, Assink will split his time between Minnesota and California and will begin his new role on Sept. 9.

Brent Assink (Courtesy of the Minnesota Orchestra)

“Brent Assink is one of the great leaders of the orchestral industry,” said Minnesota Orchestra board chair Nancy Lindahl in a news release. “Having such a respected and experienced hand on the wheel during this time of transition will serve the Minnesota Orchestra well.”

A native of Washington, Brent Assink served as executive director of the San Francisco Symphony for 18 years, a time period during which the symphony significantly grew its artistic profile and community engagement. Leading the organization through the 2008 recession, he oversaw the largest endowment fundraising campaign in the symphony’s history.

Assink also spent five years in the late ’90s as president of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, during which time he restored the orchestra to stability after a fiscal crisis, launched new education and community programs and engaged Bobby McFerrin as creative chair.

“Two strands have been consistently present throughout my career: a deep appreciation for orchestras and particular gratitude for the Twin Cities community where I was shaped and mentored,” Assink said. “So, it is a joy to return to Minnesota and serve this outstanding orchestra at a pivotal time in its history.”

Lindahl has launched a search for a permanent successor to Burns, whose final day on the job is Sept. 13.

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By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON, Associated Press

Vice President Kamala Harris is sitting down with CNN this week for her first interview since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid.

She will be joined by her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in a joint interview with CNN anchor Dana Bash in Savannah, Georgia.

The interview will air at 9 p.m. Thursday Eastern time.

Harris has been criticized for not holding news conferences or granting interviews with news outlets since Biden stepped aside on July 21.

Donald Trump’s campaign has kept a tally of the days she has gone by as a candidate without giving an interview. On Tuesday, the campaign reacted to the news by noting the interview was joint, saying “she’s not competent enough to do it on her own.”

Earlier this month, Harris had told reporters that she wanted to do her first formal interview before the end of August.