Woman is sentenced in January hit-and-run case

A woman charged with hitting a car and then coming back and hitting one of its occupants was sentenced in Carlton County Sixth District Court last week.

Rebecca Lee Glader, 39, pleaded guilty in October to felony criminal vehicular operation with substantial bodily harm, with the driver who caused the collision leaving the scene. Under the terms of the plea agreement, six other charges were dismissed, including two other felony criminal vehicular operation charges, along with gross misdemeanor and misdemeanor traffic violations, including failure to stop, failure to notify police, reckless driving, and violating the “keep to the right” traffic law.

On Dec. 13, Judge Rebekka Stumme sentenced Glader to 15 months — which falls in the appropriate range for what was classified as a Level 3 felony — but stayed the sentence, as dictated by law, assistant county attorney Mike Boese told the Pine Knot News.

Instead, the Cloquet woman must serve three years of supervised probation, complete 100 hours of community service, obtain a mental health assessment, avoid drugs and alcohol, and not make threats of violence, along with other conditions.

According to the criminal complaint, law enforcement got a report of a crash on the southbound lane of Carlton County Highway 45 in Cloquet, near Carlton Avenue, at 5:38 p.m. Jan. 14.

At the scene of the crash, officers found a man who had been struck by a maroon Chevrolet Tahoe, which had left the scene.

With her guilty plea, Glader admitted to driving the Tahoe, hitting Andrew (“Drew”) Wallien and leaving the scene of the crash.

According to the complaint, Glader and her passenger had been following or pursuing Wallien and his significant other, Stacy Lancrain, in his vehicle. There was a collision which pushed the victim’s vehicle off the roadway and into snow.

Lacrain said she and Wallien were uninjured after the initial encounter. They were leaving the Holiday gas station on Cloquet Avenue and headed home for Duluth, she said. She had been driving, and, after the crash, he came around to help her out and check the damage, she said. Then he saw the other vehicle had turned around and was coming back. It was snowing at the time.

“At this point, we thought it was an accident due to weather conditions,” she said. “Then they swerved from the other lane and hit Drew, almost head-on. I thought they were going to hit the car and the door slammed into me, that’s where my injuries come from. I heard the car hit Drew and opened my eyes to hear myself screaming. I thought Drew was dead.”

Witnesses told law enforcement they observed Glader continue to drive her vehicle after the collision, perform a U-turn on Highway 45, and drive back toward the victim and his stuck vehicle.

Witnesses said as she drove closer, Glader drove her vehicle over the centerline, traveling northbound in the southbound lane of Highway 45, and then drove partially onto the far shoulder where Wallien was standing outside his vehicle and hit him.

Glader admitted to police there was an earlier verbal altercation between the victim and her passenger.

According to Lancrain, Wallien went through a total of 14 hours of surgery that night and the next day for internal bleeding and damage to internal organs along with several fractures to his left hand, an injury to his left knee, and other injuries from being hit. Lancrain had three broken ribs and a bruised kidney.

Because the victim had not filed an affidavit of restitution before the sentencing hearing, Judge Stumme left the issue of ordering restitution open for 60 days.

If Glader completes the terms of her probation successfully, her conviction will be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor crime.