Minnesota woman fighting for harsher penalties after driver, who fatally hit her husband while working on rural road, only fined

Last fall, Courtney Norgaard lost her life partner and the father of her two children, Joe Norgaard. He was surveying a rural stretch of highway in New Market Township, Minnesota, when a driver hit and killed him.

Now, months later, the investigation into his death concluded. The Scott County Attorney said the man behind the wheel received a $100 citation for careless driving.

"They tell you sit back, just wait, we are doing an investigation, you think the system is going to do its job and sometimes it just doesn't," Courtney Norgaard said.

Norgaard doesn't feel like her family got justice and believes the punishment was too lenient. She told WCCO she never got the chance to address the driver in court. 

Scott County Sheriff Luke Hennen said deputies conducted "a thorough and comprehensive investigation" and found no evidence of impairment or distraction. The driver cooperated with investigators. 

Both the county sheriff and the county attorney expressed sympathy for the Norgaard family. 

"I certainly understand their frustration. If it was one of my family members, I wouldn't think that's acceptable either," Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar said.

Hocevar is ultimately bound to Minnesota law. 

"Ethically, I can only do what the evidence provides me to do and I have an obligation not only to victims of a crime, but I also have an obligation to defendants to only charge what I can prove in court," said Hocevar. 

Norgaard wants to see harsher penalties, if not for the driver who killed her husband, for cases in the future. 

"The language of the law is not adequate," she said. 

She is reaching out to lawmakers and hoping to bring some positive change for other families.