Officer leaving Fortune Bay Casino faces charges

Cloquet officer faces charges after traffic accident
By: Mark Stodghill , Duluth News Tribune

VIRGINIA — A Cloquet police officer is accused of leaving the scene of a traffic accident he was involved in after attending a Ted Nugent concert at Fortune Bay Casino on Labor Day weekend.

Scott Robert Beckman, 46, of Esko appeared Friday in St. Louis County District Court, charged with three crimes. He is charged with failure in the duties of a driver for allegedly failing to give notice by the quickest means of communication to law enforcement, a second charge of hit and run for allegedly failing to immediately stop and remain at the scene of an accident, and a third count of falsely reporting a crime for allegedly providing false information to an officer regarding the conduct of others. The first crime is a gross misdemeanor, the other two are misdemeanors.

Cloquet police Chief Wade Lamirande said Beckman and his attorney were declining comment Friday. Beckman is free on his own recognizance until his next hearing on Nov. 9.

Lamirande said Beckman is a patrol officer and has been with the department 10 years.

“We are aware of the incident although we don’t have any documentation,” Lamirande said. “He’s still currently working, but what will happen is there will be an internal review of the conduct once the criminal case is done.”

According to the criminal complaint: A male driver reported to 911 that he had rear-ended another vehicle on Lake Vermilion Reservation Road near the intersection of County Road 77 about 10 p.m. on Sept. 4. He said the vehicle he hit left the scene. His passenger was treated for an ankle sprain at a Hibbing hospital.

The next day, Beckman reported the accident to a St. Louis County sheriff’s deputy. He said he had been rear-ended the previous evening and he pulled over, but the car that hit him continued to travel.

A second deputy interviewed Beckman at his Esko residence. The defendant said he had been at a Ted Nugent concert the night before and had a few beers. He said he was stopped in traffic when another vehicle rear-ended him. He said he kept going because other vehicles around him kept moving. The deputy noted that that statement was inconsistent with the first statement Beckman gave to the other deputy, specifically that he had earlier said he had stopped at the scene, and the vehicle that hit him did not stop.