Rochester,MN : Driver gets probation for crash that injured girl on may, Monday 15th 2017
A Rochester man has been convicted in the hit-and-run of a child last summer.
Hussein Ahmad Haaji, 58, was charged with two felony counts of criminal vehicular operation and one count of misdemeanor DWI after the Aug. 30 incident. He pleaded guilty in March to one of the criminal vehicular operation charges; the other two counts were dismissed at Monday's sentencing.
Olmsted County District Court Judge Christina Stevens sentenced Haaji to 45 days in jail, with credit for 10 days already served, and the possible waiver of the remaining 35 days by Aug. 1 if he remains in compliance with the terms of his probation, court documents show.
Haaji was placed on probation for three years, ordered to complete treatment and to continue chemical dependency programming at Zumbro Valley Mental Health Center.
The case began when Rochester police responded that afternoon to 2001 17th St. NE for a report of a hit-and-run. The suspect vehicle was described as a green car with a flat tire.
The 11-year-old victim told her rescuers she was in the grass near the parking lot when she saw a car driving across the lawn. She tried to run to get out of the way but fell; she got up to grab her sister and fell again. The girl didn't remember anything else; she had a red lump on her forehead, scrapes on the left side of her face, was favoring her left wrist and complained of head pain, the report says.
As an officer responded to the crash, he saw a green car with a flat left front tire in the parking lot of a business on Marion Road. Two employees met the officer in the lot and asked if he was looking for the driver of the car; they'd seen him pull in, park, then walk across the lot to another business.
The employees described the driver — later identified as Haaji — as a middle-aged Somali male wearing dark pants and a green shirt. A check of the car's license plates indicated the owner was Haaji.
As the officer drove around the business complex, he spotted Haaji, who approached the squad car. After identifying himself, he told the officer somebody had punched him, so he was walking to a business to call his family. He then claimed someone had carjacked him on Marion Road, and he was there to call the police.
When confronted with the witnesses' story, Haaji changed his story somewhat, but still said he'd been punched and his car was taken by force. Though he claimed to be bleeding from his mouth, the officer didn't see any swelling, blood or scrapes on Haaji, the complaint says.
Surveillance video from the apartment complex, as well as four eyewitness accounts described Haaji's vehicle as the one that struck the child, court documents say, and described the driver as a middle-age or older Somali male with a tan "sailor-type" hat. A yellow hat was found in Haaji's pocket.
Pieces of a headlight collected at the scene allegedly matched the broken headlight lens on Haaji's car, which emitted a "strong odor of alcohol," the reports say.
Haaji failed field sobriety tests, the criminal complaint says. A preliminary breath test indicated an alcohol concentration of 0.078; a blood draw was taken and sent to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for analysis. He admitted to drinking the night before, claiming his last drink was at 1 a.m.
The victim had a broken thumb and wrist; a head scan was taken to determine the extent of her head injury. Those results weren't made available in the complaint.
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Driver gets probation for crash that injured girl