Legal Question in Criminal Law in Minnesota

Re: Probable Cause

It sounds like you are trying to describe the following. Often when police arrest a person based upon evidence they discover, or believe they have discovered, there has not been time or prior evidence to enable a prosecutor to "charge" the person with a crime in a "complaint" (or Grand Jury in an "indictment"). When police arrest under these circumstances, the local jail here will log the arrested person as being held "probable cause -- narcotics" or whatever the suspected crime may be. The person held on such a basis must be released if they are not charged with a crime within a certain period of time. If the person is not in custody, there is no time limit on when they could be charged (or indicted), other than the state or federal "Statutes of Limitation," if any, which may or may not apply under the circumstances.