Guilty Plea For Hit & Run That Severely Injured Southern MN Child

Owatonna MN (KROC-AM News) - An Owatonna man has agreed to enter a guilty plea to a felony charge stemming from a hit and run that injured a toddler earlier this year.

Police in the southern Minnesota city reported the arrest of 36-year-old Scott John Pfeiffer on May 22, a day after the pickup he was driving struck a woman carrying a two-year-old child as she was walking across the street next to her apartment building.

READ MORE: Arrest Made in Hit & Run Crash That Severely Injured Minnesota Toddler

According to the criminal complaint, the mother of the child and other family members were also crossing the street, and the mother reported seeing the pickup strike the friend who was carrying her daughter. She also described how the toddler fell out of the woman's arms onto the ground before the pickup truck drove over her.

Owatonna police indicated the little girl suffered significant injuries and was airlifted to St. Marys Hospital for treatment. The criminal complaint says Mayo Clinic physicians treated the child for a small fracture at the back of her skull with slight bleeding in the skull and a concussion. She also suffered fractures in her pelvic region, a liver lesion, along with bruising and scrapes to her entire body that included a laceration by her ear that required nine stitches.

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The complaint also describes how Owatonna police were able to identify a vehicle of interest and how investigators tracked its travels through videos recorded by cameras in various businesses. One of the videos shows Pfeifer purchasing fuel and using a carwash at a gas station immediately after the hit-and-run occurred.

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The criminal complaint says the suspect vehicle was located the following afternoon and Pfeifer was taken into custody after he was seen exiting the pickup. An investigator involved in his apprehension reported that Pfeifer made a spontaneous utterance during his arrest, stating "I didn't know I hit a person." The court document says Pfeifer also claimed that he thought he had struck trash being thrown at his vehicle.

According to a Petition to Enter Guilty Plea filed in Steele County Court, Pfeifer has agreed to admit to a felony count of criminal vehicular operation and a gross misdemeanor count of the same charge. In exchange, the Steele County Attorney's Office has agreed to dismiss gross misdemeanor counts of failing to stop for a traffic collision involving injury or death.

The plea deal recommends a sentence of 60 days in jail and possible restitution.

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