Criminal Charges

Pat and frisk laws in Minnesota require that an officer have “reasonable, articulable suspicion” that a suspect is involved in a relevant crime in order to conduct a warrantless pat-down. Reasonable, articulable suspicion exists when an officer h…

As we’ve previously discussed in a couple blog posts, the indecent exposure crime has statutory language that is vague and was applied inconsistently as a result. It left too much to interpretation by who was doing the enforcement. Minnesota co…

In 2023, Minnesota became the twelfth state to enact “Clean Slate” legislation, which was supposed to offer automatic criminal expungements to over 500,000 Minnesotan residents. Many Minnesotans who were looking forward to, and depending on, the…

Typically, when someone feels harassed, they are advised by law enforcement to get a harassment restraining order, which purportedly offers the protection sought from the harassing behavior. But, in more serious circumstances, the behavior may lead t…

We have all encountered someone who cannot control themselves when something rubs them the wrong way. Instead of keeping their cool, they take it upon themselves to cause a scene. In Minnesota, taking that scene too far can land you with a disorderly…

A common question we get from our clients and family/friends is: what is the difference between a misdemeanor vs. felony? To understand this, we will go over the full list of levels of crimes in Minnesota, starting with a type of conviction that is t…

The term “justice-involved veterans” describes former service members who are on the wrong side of a criminal investigation or criminal charges. Often, a criminal proceeding against a veteran has underlying connections to some sort of service-rel…

We’ve already discussed how fleeing police in a motor vehicle is a serious felony level offense. A less serious offense – at least by severity level of the crime – is the misdemeanor charge of fleeing police by other means. As you c…