As the youngest contributor to this blog, who graduated from college not so long ago, I think it’s safe to assume that, among my fellow Minnesota Litigator colleagues, I’m the most recent attendee of a fraternity party (hopefully). For the unfamiliar, these parties follow a standard formula: a fraternity house, cheap and abundant liquor (see […]

Last week the Minnesota Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated decision in the DWI source code litigation.  You can read a previous post about the oral arguments here.  The Court affirmed the district court’s order, which held mostly for the State.  Briefly, the Court held that the source code challenge did not raise questions as […]

The Court of Appeals recently issued a decision holding that a person’s front yard is not a “public place” under a statute making it a crime to carry a gun without a permit in a public place.  In State v. Yang, someone called 911 after seeing the defendant carrying a gun at his house.  Police went […]

As a Minnesota Criminal Defense Attorney, I get quite a few calls about DWIs.  Minnesota has some of the strictest DWI laws in the country and the best way to handle a DWI arrest or charge can be quite confusing.  I get many referrals from other attorneys whose clients are facing DWIs wanting to know […]

Update (June 1, 2012): After a hearing, Hennepin County District Court Judge Mabley denied Senser’s motion for acquittal or a new trial.  The judge said that the verdict itself was based on jury instructions that were a correct statement of Minnesota law, so the verdict should be upheld.  The judge found no support for Senser’s […]

For our second profile of an interesting Minnesota trial lawyer (our first, Elliot Olsen, can be found here), we had the chance to sit down recently with Jim Behrenbrinker to talk about his diverse practice and the big excessive force/wrongful death claim he brought against the City of Minneapolis. Behrenbrinker was formerly at Robins Kaplan […]

For years, prosecutors and defense attorneys have battled over the sealing and expungement of executive branch records.  It is well settled that Minnesota courts can expunge judicial records, but Minnesota Supreme Court decisions had suggested that executive branch records could not be touched due to the separation of powers.  In practice, this meant that a […]

In State v. Tanksley, the Minnesota Supreme Court recently affirmed DWI urine testing procedures despite concerns that the urine testing does not accurately reflect a person’s blood alcohol content.  Although the source code challenge has taken most of the spotlight, Minnesota DWI defense attorneys have been bringing challenges on another front as well: first-void urine […]

For more than five years, thousands of DWI convictions have been in limbo while defense attorneys and prosecutors argue whether the source code of alcohol breath test machines provide reliable results.  With a history of fierce disagreement between the two sides, resembling the drama of a heavyweight boxing match, the litigation came to the Minnesota […]

Here is the indictment of Dennis E. Hecker (and an alleged co-conspirator).  The charges:  wire fraud and the conspiracy to commit wire fraud.  Here and here is the media coverage.  No surprise here.  Many, including Hecker himself, saw this coming (potential criminal vulnerability discussed here).