STILLWATER, Minn. — A Washington County motorist pleaded guilty to petty misdemeanor charges of being a nuisance on a public roadway in connection with a road rage incident targeting Olympic Gold Medalist Jessie Diggins and her former high school coach.
George Frost of St. Mary's Point will pay a $300 dollar fine plus court fees as part of a plea agreement that results in far more serious charges, including assault, disorderly conduct-intent to harm, and both reckless and careless driving being dismissed.
The incident took place October 28 on a rural road near Diggins' home in Afton during a training session. The Gold Medal-winning cross country skier posted on her blog that she was roller skiing when a man in an SUV, later identified as Frost, drove up behind them and swerved so close that she was "rocked sideways from the wind." Diggins says she and training partner Kristen Hansen moved over to give the truck plenty of room, but he purposely attempted to intimidate them. In fact, she posted that Frost even came to a stop and when they tried to pass him he kept driving on the far right shoulder and forced them to the center of the road.
"When we sped up, he sped up. When we slowed down, he came to a stop, blocking us from getting back to the side of the road," she wrote.
Diggins said she knocked on the window shouting that he was going to get them killed, and he flipped her a middle finger and turned up his music.
"It was the most incredible display of aggressive bullying and 'I’m bigger than you and I’m in a SUV so I’m going to harass you' that I’ve ever seen in person," she wrote.
In the criminal complaint filed against Frost, prosecutors say he told investigators "he was upset thinking that they were breaking the law by roller skiing and felt that due to his experience with law enforcement as he was a child growing up in the area that he was harassed for skateboarding in the area and felt this was the same circumstances, but somehow this was okay but the skateboarding was not."
