Charge: Twin Cities driver was accelerating, on phone when she fatally hit motorcyclist

A driver was accelerating and on her phone when she fatally struck a motorcyclist at an Anoka County intersection, according to a criminal complaint.

Jessica Marie Pietrzak, 31, of St. Francis was charged in District Court last week with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the crash on Oct. 5 in Oak Grove at the intersection of Viking and Lake George boulevards NW. that killed Kelly Matthew Linder, 49, of Albert Lea, Minn.

Pietrzak was charged by summons and is due in court on May 30. Court records do not list an attorney for her. Messages were left Monday with Pietrzak seeking a response to the allegations.

Court records show that Pietrzak was ticketed in August by a St. Francis police officer in connection with driving while on her phone. According to state Department of Public Safety statistics, distracted driving was a factor in 132 traffic deaths in Minnesota from 2019 through 2023.

According to the charges and related court documents:

Linder stopped shortly before noon on eastbound Viking Boulevard and was waiting to turn left onto Lake George Boulevard when Pietrzak’s SUV hit the motorcycle from behind, throwing Linder to his death.

A witness reported that Pietrzak initially said she was on her phone and not paying attention. But as more people arrived, she explained the sun was in her eyes. Officers noted the midday sun was high in the sky and “deemed it unlikely to have impaired her vision,” the complaint read.

Pietrzak acknowledged to law enforcement using her phone a couple of times while driving but then put it in the center console and denied being on it at the time of the crash.

Analysis of the phone revealed to investigators that Pietrzak’s phone “was nearly in constant use leading up to the collision, with the ‘Apple Find My’ [app] being active when the collision occurred.”

The investigation also revealed Pietrzak was traveling between 45 and 53 miles per hour and was picking up speed for the 5 seconds before impact.

“If [Pietrzak] had not been using her phone ... and had maintained forward awareness, the crash would not have occurred,” the complaint concluded. “There was ample time and space for [her] to slow and use the bypass lane to avoid hitting [Linder].”