Duluth man because of high -speed crash

Duluth-a man was charged with a high-speed accident, in which a nun was killed last year.

Damien John Brown, 24, from Duluth, will be accused of the collision of murder and operation of crime people in May 2024, who led to Sister Arlene Kleemann's death more than six weeks later.

In a criminal complaint, Brown claimed that he fled another collision on site when he blew through a stop sign in the Central Hillside district and the car hit that Kleemann drove at least 73 miles per hour.

The 80 -year -old Kleemann, a long -time pedagogue in the St. Scholastica monastery, suffered several serious injuries and her condition deteriorated until her death in June.

Brown has an extensive history of traffic offenses and reports reportedly at the time of the crash with a revoked driver's license. He faces an illegal complaint separately.

According to court documents:

Brown raced east in the Fourth Street when his Ford Fusion fell into a Subaru Forester driven by Elizabeth Strickland at around 6 p.m. around 6 p.m. around 6 p.m. at around 6 p.m.

Witnesses said Strickland stopped when she drove north, but Brown was not trying to do too slowly for the four-way station.

Kleemann, who was in the passenger seat, was brought to the hospital for injuries, including a broken leg, several broken ribs, a broken sternum, a broken vertebra, a kidney injury and a collapsed lung. She underwent emergency operation, “but did not react positively and did not continue in an acute trauma state.”

Brown, who was slightly bleeding, but “seemed physically okay to be torn out”, admitted to an officer that he was to blame for the crash.

He explained that he was on Interstate 35 when he “brakes” a truck, which then turned his merger and made him lose control and wipe a Chevrolet suburb. He said he started first, but then panicked because he realized that his driving privileges were revoked.

Brown told the officer that he left the I-35 in the Mesaba Avenue, whereby the suburb was following him. He turned to fourth street and estimated that he reached speeds of 50 to 55 miles per hour and admitted that he drove through the stop sign.

Kleemann was finally moved to a qualified nursing facility, but never a complete recovery when her condition “gradually retrograded” until the death on June 24th. A medical examiner cited the cause as “complications of several blunt trauma force injuries due to a motor vehicle collision”.

The investigator of Duluth Police, Adam Gonnerman, later completed an accident reconstruction that found that Brown drove about 85 miles per hour before the crash and that the car drove at least 73 miles per hour during the collision.

The authorities found that the speed limit is 30 miles per hour and that it is a residential area with high density with considerable walking.

Court files show that Brown was sentenced to 13 times for driving without a valid driver's license or after suspension or revocation. He has three speed crimes in his record in Minnesota and was condemned in a motor vehicle for impaired driving, careless driving, property damage, possession of marijuana in a motor vehicle.

Brown last week a summons were issued on June 2 to appear before the State District Court.

A lawsuit was submitted in February by the only surviving heir to the nun, her 85-year-old brother George Kleemann from Illinois. In the lawsuit, negligence is claimed and is looking for more than 50,000 US dollars in damages.

Brown submitted a standard response that officially rejects the allegations; The suit remains in its preliminary stages.

According to an obituary, Kleemann was born and grew up in Chicago, entering the St. Scholastica monastery in 1961 and made her first monastery profession two years later. In 1966 she acquired a bachelor's degree in education and music from St. Scholastica and was a teacher and headmistress at the St. James Catholic School in West Duluth.

Kleemann returned to her home community in Chicago for more than 40 years and taught there for more than 40 years. 1983 a master's Ministry at Loyola University. Her ministry focused on “Children's youngest immigrants from all over the world in supporting their families.

According to Obit, Kleemann had returned to Duluth in 2023.

Tom Olsen has covered crime and dishes and the 8th congress district for the Duluth News Tribune since 2013. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Duluth and a lifelong inhabitant of the city. The readers can contact Olsen at 218-723-5333 or Tolsen@duluthnews.com.