An Olmsted County judge has denied former Minnesota trooper Shane Roper’s request for the court to drop charges against him for his role in a 2024 crash that killed Owatonna teenager Olivia Flores.

In an order signed Wednesday, District Judge Lisa Hayne wrote that a reasonable jury could find that Roper’s driving was grossly negligent based on the facts of the case presented by the state.

Roper, who was fired by the patrol in September of last year, faces nine criminal charges stemming from the fatal crash, including second-degree manslaughter and criminal vehicular homicide.

In court documents, Roper’s defense had argued the former trooper was acting within the scope of his duties when his squad car collided into two vehicles at a busy intersection near the Apache Mall in Rochester.

Flores, who was days away from her high school graduation, died the next day of blunt-force injuries. Five others were seriously injured in the crash.

In the order, the judge pushed back against the defense’s claims that the Ford Focus occupied by Flores was at fault in the crash. The defense had noted that Roper’s light was green at the time of the crash, and that the Focus failed to yield before making a turn.

But Hayne wrote that while the driver of the car did have an obligation to yield to oncoming traffic, it is reasonable to believe the driver would not have seen the squad car coming given the rate of speed Roper was traveling.

“A jury could find that her actions were completely appropriate, and that the collision would not have occurred if Mr. Roper had not been travelling 43 miles OVER the posted speed limit without lights or sirens,” Hayne wrote.