Legal Question in Criminal Law in Minnesota

Re: Ist Degree Meth charge

I'm somewhat confused about this sitaution. It sounds like he has

cases pending in three counties, but Nicollet County does not have a

meth charge before it.

I imagine your husband has lawyers in each county. What do they say?

I could see Sibley and LeSueur County doing some 'jurisdictional

horse trading' because they each have a meth charge. But, Nicollet

County has a domestic abuse charge which probably isn't even a

felony.

A defendant can't move cases from one county to another without the

permission of the proseuctors and the court. I don't think the other

prosecutors would agree to move it to Nicollet County, nor do I think

the Nicollet County judge would take it.

By the way, the judge who always sits in Nicollet County has a

reputation of being harsher than the judges in the other two counties.

Bottom line: Talk to your husband's attorney about this.

Herb Kroon

Re: Ist Degree Meth charge

I have defended drug cases, where there are two separate incident dates, where we worked out a settlement that included one county dropping all charges (or not filing), in return for a guilty plea in another county. This sort of deal will benefit the defendant by preventing a higher criminal history score in the future, and by making the conviction record look a little cleaner to future employers, etc. But, it is only one aspect of a potential plea bargain, which must be evaluated in light of the strength of the evidence against the defendant (in both cases), and, all of the other terms of the proposed plea bargain (such as executed prison time vs. probation vs. conditions of probation, etc.).

He should discuss this with his defense lawyer.