This week, the Minnesota Court of Appeals issued an important decision, pulling back the expanding usage of drug detection dogs for searches of controlled substances. In State v. Edstrom, the Court of Appeals held that law enforcement must get a warr…

A common part of sentencing is restitution – which is supposed to repay any victim the out of pocket losses they sustained as a result of the crime. As you can probably imagine, restitution requests can lead to a lot of issues, particularly whe…

Mr. Gempeler was named a 2017 Rising Star. This is the third consecutive year – which coincides with his tenure at North Star – being named a Rising Star by his peers and colleagues alike. It’s a recognition awarded to only 2.5% of…

We’ve recently made a point to covering various crimes in greater detail that fall under the umbrella of theft. This week we cover dishonored check issuance, commonly known as writing a bad check. Dishonored check issuance, is essentially writi…

Prostitution and sex trafficking are a set of crimes that largely go under the radar in our society and occur much more frequently than most would expect. 60,000-85,000 prostitution related arrests occur each year in the United States. Law enforcemen…

Continuing our theme of covering less common crimes in our blog posts, we will be covering the crime of receiving stolen property. Receiving stolen property is defined as any person who receives, possesses, transfers, buys or conceals any stolen prop…

Bribery is a unique crime in it’s variety and scope. There are three different acts that constitute bribery in Minnesota. They are: general bribery, which typically applies to government officials; commercial bribery for private industries; and…

The outcome in many criminal cases can hinge on a skilled and artful argument by a sentencing attorney. A successful one can take a case destined for a commitment to prison and convince the judge a probationary sentence, with no prison time, is appro…