Opinions Archive

When a district court instructs a jury in a test refusal case that the State must prove the defendant refused to submit to the test, the district court does not abuse its discretion by denying the defendant’s request to also instruct the jury that the State must prove the defendant’s actual unwillingness to submit to chemical testing. Affirmed.

Based on the totality of the circumstances—including respondent’s admission to drinking three beers and backing her car into a pedestrian in a bar parking lot at closing time—a police officer’s request for a preliminary breath test from the respondent was supported by an objectively reasonable suspicion of driving while impaired, which was not dispelled by the existence of other factors that diminished but did not conclusively negate the basis of the reasonable suspicion. Reversed.

Minnesota Statutes section 484.014, subdivision 3(a)(5) (2024), is facially unconstitutional because it violates the separation-of-powers doctrine by mandating that the district court expunge an eviction case three years after the eviction was ordered without a motion by any party. Reversed.

A notice of filing of a "decision or order" under Minnesota Rule of Civil Procedure 59.03 need not be of a final, appealable decision to trigger that rule’s timing requirements. Affirmed.

Minnesota Statutes section 152.0263, subdivision 1(1) (Supp. 2023), is a civil/regulatory statute, which the State of Minnesota lacks jurisdiction to enforce against an enrolled member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe for the possession of cannabis flower occurring within the territorial boundaries of the White Earth Reservation. Reversed.

This appeal arises from appellant’s conviction for fourth-degree criminal damage to property, a misdemeanor.

The state charged Austin Ouellette with two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct based on his alleged sexual penetration of a minor, and he pleaded guilty to one count in a negotiated plea deal with the state

Following a conviction of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and third-degree sale of a controlled substance, appellant argues that the postconviction court abused its discretion by denying his postconviction petition to withdraw his guilty pleas.

In this direct appeal from a judgment of conviction for threats of violence, appellant Rashad Levonte Lenear argues that (1) his guilty plea was not accurate because the factual basis did not establish two elements of the offense, (2) the district court abused its discretion in denying his presentencing motion to withdraw his guilty plea as involuntary, and (3) the district court erred by assigning three criminal-history-score points for offenses committed as part of a single course of conduct involving multiple victims.

A Wright County jury found Patrick Michael Remer guilty of mistreatment of an animal based on evidence that he injured a dog.