I defended a case recently in Mille Lacs County, Minnesota where my client was charged with a felony DWI offense. This was a 42 month prison commit case upon conviction as he had a prior felony DWI conviction from 13 years ago. The case was weak from a defense standpoint. Our best option was to [...]
What is the law in Minnesota regarding marijuana in a motor vehicle? The most important point to remember is that it's a felony for a person to possess more than 42.5 grams of marijuana in a car, on their person or anywhere within their possession or control. If a person is the owner or driver of a motor vehicle [...]
If you are charged with a violation of the Minnesota predatory offender registration law, the consequences of a conviction can be dire. If it's a first time offense, you are facing a mandatory minimum prison commit of not less than a year and a day and not more than five years! If you have a previous [...]
If you have served any prison time based on a wrongful conviction and have been exonerated by the court, you may be eligible for compensation. Eligibility can occur in a situation where a court has reversed or vacated a judgment of conviction based on grounds consistent with innocence and the charges are dismissed by a prosecutor. A person may also [...]
Who is a potential coconspirator to a drug sale? Any person who conspired with another person to commit a drug sale where one or more of the coconspirators did some overt act in furtherance of the of the conspiracy. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=609.175. The courts in Minnesota have determined that everything said, written or done by a single coconspirator [...]
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects our homes against unreasonable searches and seizures by the police. A home may be search with a valid warrant but this will requires a showing before a judge of probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed and the home contains evidence of the crime. Any [...]
In Minnesota, the entrapment defense may be used in a criminal case to combat government overreaching and obtain an acquittal. In order to prevail on the defense, a defendant will need to establish by a "fair preponderance of the evidence" that the government induced him to commit the crime. Inducement occurs [...]
How do the police set you up on a typical sex sting operation in Minnesota? The police may start by placing an ad on Backpages which reads something like, "Naughty Little Play Things." The ad will list the girls ages at 18. A person who responds to this ad will soon be entrapped by the police through the use of [...]
Are you charged with a controlled substance crime in Minnesota that calls for a prison commit? Are there no defenses in your case and you are about to give up all hope? Help is on the way. You just need to prove to an open-minded judge at the time of sentencing that you are "particularly [...]
The Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed the DWI conviction of a criminal defendant for refusing to submit to a urine test where police failed to obtain a search warrant. The Court held that Minnesota's test-refusal statute is unconstitutional when applied to suspects who are charged with refusal to submit to either a warrantless blood or urine [...]
