An Afton man has been charged after his 10-year-old daughter gave her best friend a ride on an ATV that led to a crash that killed both girls last year.

The Washington County Attorney’s Office charged Lance Alan Koeckeritz, 54, with two counts each of second-degree manslaughter and child endangerment in connection with the deaths of his daughter, Savanna Koeckeritz, and Alexis “Lexi” Gibson, also 10, of Mahtomedi, at his Afton property April 22, 2023.

Left: Alexis “Lexi” Gibson, 10, of Mahtomedi. Right: Savanna Koeckeritz, 10, of Afton. The girls died on Saturday, April 22, 2023, in an ATV accident in Afton. (Courtesy of the New Heights School)

When the girls didn’t return in time to leave for a movie, a relative went out looking for them, Friday’s criminal complaint says. They were found trapped under the ATV unconscious and not breathing, and later pronounced dead at the scene.

Koeckeritz told deputies who were called to the scene that the children were allowed to operate the ATV whenever they wanted, and it is not necessary for them to check in with him or ask permission, the complaint says.

He added, “the girls would take the ATV for brief periods at a time” and that they would return to a camper located on the property or the residence.

The ATV is a 2013 CFMoto, with an 800cc engine and saddle-style seat. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the recommended engine size for children ages 10 and up is up to 110cc.

In Minnesota, anyone can drive an ATV on private property with permission from the owner. But to legally drive one on public property, young people ages 12 to 15 must be supervised by an adult and have a valid ATV safety certificate.

Koeckeritz was charged by summons and has a first appearance on the charges scheduled for Aug. 19. An attorney is not listed in his court case file.

County Attorney Kevin Magnuson declined to comment Tuesday on the charging decision.

According to the complaint and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office:

Deputies and first-responders arrived at the Koeckeritz property in the 1000 block of Neal Avenue around 5 p.m. and found the girls lying on their backs with CPR being performed on them.

Detectives saw that neither girl was wearing helmets or other protective gear, the complaint says.

Detectives were told that Alexis and Savanna went to the home after school the day before for a sleepover. The property is just under 8½ acres with hilly terrain and worn dirt paths throughout, the complaint notes.

Savanna’s mother was at work at the time of the crash, while her father was at home.

Koeckeritz told detectives that he never left the home, that he was in his office trailer from approximately 1 to 5 p.m. He showed detectives the trailer office he was working in and said he did not hear any disturbances while he worked.

“Detectives observed the work trailer to be nearly soundproof where they could barely hear yelling directly outside the trailer door,” the complaint says.

Savanna’s mother planned to bring the girls to a movie at 5:15 p.m. She had communicated her plans to Koeckeritz earlier in the day, and around 4 p.m. asked another child at the home to get the girls ready for the movie.

The mother arrived at the home around 4:15 p.m. and was unable to locate the girls despite searching for them for over 15 minutes. At approximately 5 p.m. a second child at the home found the girls pinned under the ATV and unconscious.

Koeckeritz remained in the work trailer until he was told of the emergency after the girls were found, the complaint says.

Autopsies showed the girls died of asphyxia.

According to the manufacturer’s specs, the ATV weighs about 1,000 pounds with a full tank of gas.

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Hamline University has agreed to settle the religious discrimination lawsuit brought by an art history instructor who lost her job after showing paintings of the Prophet Muhammad during an October 2022 class.

The tentative deal was reached Monday night after a 12-hour settlement conference, according to U.S. District Court records. The terms are not public.

Attorneys for Erika López Prater and the private St. Paul university were instructed to finalize the settlement in the next 60 days or ask the court for more time.

López Prater’s showing of two ancient works of art over videoconference offended a Muslim student, who believes the Prophet should not be visually depicted.

University leaders largely took the student’s side, with one calling the decision “disrespectful and Islamophobic,” and López Prater was not allowed to teach the following semester.

Those moves sparked an outcry from academics across the country and led to Hamline hosting a fall 2023 symposium on free speech, diversity and academic freedom. Then-President Fayneese Miller, who has since retired, said Hamline made a “misstep” when it called the instructor’s actions Islamophobic.

López Prater sued Hamline in January 2023.

In September, U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez dismissed some of the claims but allowed the case to proceed on religious discrimination. The judge found that López Prater plausibly alleged that Hamline took action against her “because she was not Muslim or did not conform to the religious beliefs held by some that viewing images of the Prophet Muhammad is forbidden.”

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DULUTH, Minn. — One person was injured when a sightseeing ship struck the breakwater in the Duluth-Superior Harbor on Saturday night.

Authorities were called to the Wisconsin Entry just before 11 p.m. after initial reports said the Vista Star was against the breakwater but not taking on water, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

One person was reported with non-life-threatening injuries, the sheriff’s office said. The U.S. Coast Guard transported the injured person to Loon’s Foot Landing in Superior, Wis., where the victim was picked up by an ambulance and brought to a Duluth hospital.

The Vista Star crew maneuvered the ship, which was listing to one side in 5-foot waves, off the breakwater. The St. Louis County Rescue Squad, Coast Guard and Duluth Fire Department escorted it back to the Minnesota Slip under its own power.

Several people were assessed for minor injuries at the Minnesota Slip.

Eighty-four people were aboard the ship, according to the sheriff’s office, for a special Sips on Superior cocktail cruise departing at 10:30 p.m. The Vista Star is the larger of the Vista Fleet’s two vessels, measuring 92 feet.

The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident.

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Former employees of Rainbow Health, a local health care and social service provider, are demanding answers from the Board of Directors after the organization suddenly closed last week.

After more than 40 years of serving and advocating for the Twin Cities LGBTQ+ community, Rainbow Health informed some 80 employees on Thursday that it would close immediately and union members said Monday that little reasoning has been given since.

“None of us were prepared,” said Ash Tifa, the former legal services program coordinator for Rainbow Health, on Monday.

Workers, 60 of whom are union-represented, received an email Thursday morning about an all-staff meeting where just two hours later they were informed of the closure, according to a news release from Rainbow Health Workers Union, which is represented by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa.

During the all-staff meeting, Tifa said employees pressed for answers as to why the closure needed to happen that day. The only answer they were given was, “We can’t pay you past today,” Tifa said.

Just days before the announcement of the nonprofits’ closure, CEO Jeremy Hanson Willis resigned following a unanimous vote of no confidence, according to the union.

Leading up to the closure, employees had been calling for accountability and transparency, Tifa said, adding that “a pattern emerged” in regards to the organization’s executives being “unable to answer questions relating to our finances.”

Rainbow Health did not respond to requests for comment as of Monday afternoon, but the organization’s automated phone message said: “Due to insurmountable financial challenges, we can no longer sustain our operations.”

Community impact

Lee Start was meeting with a client during last Thursday’s emergency meeting.

“I learned a few minutes before 1 p.m. that I had until 5 p.m. to terminate services with almost 40 clients,” Start said Monday. “I had a client in the waiting room while staff was in the hall sobbing.”

Start, who worked for Rainbow Health as a psychotherapist since 2019, said the sudden closure is causing trauma to people who are already traumatized.

Rainbow Health’s roots in the Twin Cities date back to 1980 when volunteers launched the Minnesota AIDS Project, which focused on providing a support network and information for gay and bisexual men in the midst of the AIDS epidemic. It eventually grew to include a formalized referral network in the early 2000s and merged with Rainbow Health Initiative in 2018, briefly becoming JustUs Health before being renamed to Rainbow Health in 2021.

“Many of the clients we see, this is the only safe space and support they have,” Start said.

As a result, some of Rainbow Health’s former employees are providing pro-bono services like food and ride assistance to their clients while they sort through next steps, Start said.

Friday, the day after the closure, Tifa hosted a name-change clinic where more than 50 people showed up, said Start.

“There are thousands of people this is impacting and we demand and deserve answers,” they said. “Our clients deserve better than this.”

Next steps

In addition to answers, the union is demanding the employees be paid out PTO and the 30-day notice period they were never given, which Tifa said was stipulated in their contract.

The union is currently trying to reach the board to discuss its demands. The board, which said it would respond on Monday, has yet to reach out, Tifa said early Monday afternoon.

Uzoamaka McLaughlin, a former medical case manager coordinator with Rainbow Health, praised the union on Monday, saying “This platform has given us a voice. If it wasn’t for the union, I don’t know who would be talking on our behalf.”

Rainbow Health Workers voted to form their union in early 2022 due to alleged racial abuse and retaliatory firing practices, McLaughlin said.

According to a 2022 open letter to the community, Rainbow Health staffers wrote that they had witnessed instances of “tokenization and exploitation of Black staff by Rainbow Health leadership,” “potentially/perceived retaliatory employment termination for people who object to Rainbow Health leadership’s treatment of staff” and “hostile shut-down tactics creating a culture of non-transparency and fear amongst staff.”

McLaughlin went on to say the union had had its “best meeting ever” last December where the outgoing board recommended the new board members meet with the union in three months’ time. But the meeting never happened, McLaughlin said, despite repeated requests.

“We don’t even know who to channel our questions to,” McLaughlin said. “Who should take this fall?”

Caleb Hensin contributed to this story. 

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