Driver charged in Father Dempsey’s October bicycle death

A Minneapolis man has been charged with felony criminal vehicular homicide in the Oct. 25 death of Father Dennis Dempsey while the priest pedaled his bicycle on the shoulder of County Road 42 in Rosemount. Trejean Derrell Curry, 26, was driving with a revoked license when he fatally struck Father Dempsey, who was 73, according to court records.

If convicted, Curry faces up to 10 years in prison.

Curry also has been convicted nine times over the last six years for driving without a license, court records show.

The Minnesota State Patrol’s reconstruction of the crash indicated that Curry’s car and Father Dempsey’s bicycle were westbound and the collision happened on the north shoulder of the road. Skid marks from the car and the point of impact were on the shoulder, to the right of the solid white “fog line,” according to a criminal complaint filed in Dakota County District Court.

Father Dempsey grew up in Minneapolis. He served in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for 41 years, including as pastor of Risen Savior in Burnsville at the time of his death, plus 15 years at St. Dominic in Northfield (2004-2019).

Mara Mangan, director of faith formation at St. Dominic who worked with Father Dempsey all the years he served there, said at the time of his death that he loved kayaking, biking and the outdoors. And that he relied on and lived the providence of God.

“He trusted God in everything,” she said. “That’s what he taught us, really, is to just allow God to work in our lives and to trust God.”

In July 2019, Father Dempsey left St. Dominic to serve for the second time at the archdiocesan mission in Venezuela, until his return to the Twin Cities in June 2021. He assisted at the parish Jesucristo Resucitado in San Felix, where he helped the pastor, Father Greg Schaffer, who was Father Dempsey’s assistant when Father Dempsey was pastor at the mission in the late 1990s.