MADISON — Drivers who flee police and seriously hurt someone now have a new punishment to fear.
Governor Tony Evers signed a bill into law that creates mandatory minimum sentences that end in a tragedy. It’s a pain a father of a victim hopes no other parent has to experience.
“This is a hell that nobody should have to go through,” Mark Hagen said.
It was a full circle moment for Hagen as he returned to the capitol months after first stepping foot inside the statehouse to tell his daughter’s story and advocate for change in her name.
“Erin was always a doer. When she saw something, she did something about it,” Hagen said. “When she saw a wrong she tried to right it.”
Erin Mogensen and her unborn child were killed by a driver fleeing Wauwatosa police last fall. The driver hit Erin’s car head-on going 70 miles an hour. The pregnant 32-year-old died at the scene before Hagen could get there. The driver tried to run away.
“To say something good has come of her death, I can’t take it that far because nothing good could come from her not being here but she would be proud,” Hagen said.
On Wednesday, he stood alongside Erin’s mother Ruth, and more than a dozen supporters who held pictures of Erin and wore hats that read, ‘Enough is enough’ as Governor Evers signed the bill into law.
The new law that unanimously passed the legislature means guaranteed consequences. Fleeing police and causing a serious injury will now land the driver in prison for at least one and a half years. Meanwhile, causing a death in a police chase would come with a mandatory minimum sentence of two and a half years.
“Do you consider that a just punishment for the crime?” TMJ4 reporter Ben Jordan asked.
“It’s not for me to be a judge here, but that is the minimum,” Governor Evers replied. “I’m certain on the circumstances like we saw today that it would be more than just two and a half years for that type of thing. It’s a low bar for sure, but I’m sure a crime this horrific would have a sentence of much longer.”
Governor Evers calls the new mandatory minimums a low bar, but a good starting point. One that began with State Representative Bob Donovan.
“Do you think this will make a difference in the amount of people who flee police?” Jordan asked.
"I would hope so. I would hope they would think twice,” Rep. Donovan replied. “Anyone that causes great bodily harm or death needs to go to jail for a long long time.”
Hagen thinks accountability has to come in the courtroom.
“If it saves only one life, it will be worth it. But hopefully, the impact will be greater than that,” he said.
It’s something he hopes to see in his daughter's case and beyond.
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