Pfc. Michael Dempsey, 21, was slated to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide charges in the crash death of a pedestrian in Ansbach, Germany, on Jan. 12, 2025. Those charges were dropped last week after an Army court agreed to his request for a discharge through a special dispensation. (Facebook)
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany — A military police officer in the U.S. Army who killed a German pedestrian in a road crash last year in Ansbach has agreed to a deal that will spare him the possibility of a prison sentence.
Pfc. Michael Dempsey, 21, had been scheduled to stand trial in May on charges of involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide.
He was arraigned at Katterbach Kaserne on Feb. 17 and pleaded not guilty, Bavarian public broadcaster BR24 reported. The charges were dropped Friday after his request for a discharge through a special dispensation was approved.
At the time of the early-morning crash near Urlas Kaserne on Jan. 12, 2025, Dempsey was 19. He was driving his police vehicle on the B14 highway when he lost control and fatally struck 33-year-old Damaris Wedel as she was walking on a footpath, German police said previously.
Wedel, a married mother of four, was hit from behind with a vehicle traveling at between 45 and 55 mph, authorities said. A GoFundMe campaign started by a family friend raised over $115,000, BR24 reported at the time.
German prosecutors think Dempsey fell asleep at the wheel, they told Stars and Stripes in March. He had started work at 9:30 p.m. the previous day. The case was eventually handed over to the U.S. military for prosecution.
Under the terms of the deal, he will be separated from the Army with an other-than-honorable discharge and reduced in rank to private, Michelle McCaskill, an Office of Special Trial Counsel spokeswoman, said in a statement Friday.
“Through his request for a discharge, Pfc. Dempsey took responsibility for his actions,” McCaskill said, adding that Wedel’s family supported the petition.
A resident of Holbrook, N.Y., Dempsey will soon return to the U.S., McCaskill said. She noted that his deal also includes financial penalties.
Stars and Stripes reporters Lydia Gordon and Marcus Kloeckner contributed to this report.
