Alleged drunk driver in St. Louis Park restaurant patio crash that killed 2 and injured 9 pleads not guilty

Steven Frane Bailey has formally entered a not guilty plea on charges that he killed two people and injured nine more by driving drunk and crashing his car into the patio of the Park Tavern in St. Louis Park over Labor Day weekend.

Bailey posted $500,000 bond in October and is on conditional release while attending treatment for alcohol addiction. On Tuesday afternoon, he sat outside the sixth-floor courtroom of the Hennepin County Government Center with members of his family waiting for court to be called into session. Family members of the crash victims congregated at the other end of the hall.

Judge Juan Hoyos entered the not guilty plea for Bailey and agreed to a trial start date of May 12, 2025, with an evidentiary hearing set to take place Feb. 6, 2025.

Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Krista White noted that when Bailey completes his treatment there will need to be a discussion about what happens to his conditional release.

Hoyos had granted Bailey what is commonly referred to as a bed-to-bed transfer as part of his release from jail. Bailey is currently allowed to stay at his residential treatment facility and is allowed to leave only to attend meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous and court hearings. He remains on electronic home monitoring.

Bailey was dressed in a white collared shirt with a tie and brown slacks for his appearance alongside attorney Thomas Sieben. He is facing 13 criminal charges related to the Sept. 1 crash that killed Park Tavern employee Kristina Folkerts, 30, of St. Louis Park, and customer Gabriel Quinn Harvey, 30, of Rosemount and injured nine others, three seriously.

Folkerts, a mother of three, was a server at the restaurant where her mother had also worked. Harvey, a health unit coordinator at nearby Methodist Hospital and a nursing school student, was there with others celebrating a colleague's departure.

Tuesday's hearing lasted just a few minutes. Folkerts' mother-in-law, Mary Smith, said she had driven 90 minutes with her sister, Patty Blankenship, to be there in honor of Folkerts. Smith said it was bizarre to see Bailey looking more or less like a free man. She said Folkerts' youngest daughter, Halle, just turned 2.

After the crash, police administered a preliminary breath test at Hennepin County Medical Center, Bailey's blood alcohol level was measured at 0.325%, four times the Minnesota legal limit of 0.08%. According to court documents, Bailey has five previous drunken driving convictions. He had a valid Minnesota driver's license at the time of the Park Tavern crash.

Bailey, 56, is charged with two counts of third-degree murder, two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and nine counts of criminal vehicular operation.

In announcing the charges, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the language of the third-degree murder charge, committing an act "eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life," matched the crime.