Cloquet cop gets probation for failing to report accident

VIRGINIA — A Cloquet police officer was sentenced Wednesday to a year of probation after admitting that he didn’t promptly report a traffic accident he was involved in.

Scott Robert Beckman, 46, of Esko pleaded guilty in March to one gross misdemeanor count of failure in the duties of a driver for failing to give notice by the quickest means of communication to law enforcement.

He had also been charged with 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 office regarding the conduct of others. Both misdemeanors were dismissed.

Judge James Florey imposed the probationary sentence in State District Court. As conditions of Beckman’s probation, he is ordered to not drink and drive and to remain law-abiding. He was fined $900 and $85 court costs.

Beckman is a patrol officer and has been with the department 10 years. He was 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.

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. 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.

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