Case Name: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. John T. KEIM, Appellant
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Minnesota
Decision Date: 1980-03-07
Citations: 290 N.W.2d 760
Docket Number: No. 49358
Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. John T. KEIM, Appellant.
Judges: 
Reporter: North Western Reporter 2d
Volume: 290
Pages: 760–760

Head Matter:
STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. John T. KEIM, Appellant.
No. 49358.
Supreme Court of Minnesota.
March 7, 1980.
C. Paul Jones, Public Defender and Kathy A. King, Asst. Public Defender, Minneapolis, for appellant.
Warren Spannaus, Atty. Gen., Thomas L. Fabel, Deputy Atty. Gen., Norman B. Coleman, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., St. Paul, Fred W. Wellmann, County Atty., Austin, for respondent.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
This is an appeal from judgment of conviction of felonious theft, Minn.Stat. § 609.-52, subd. 2(2) and 3(2) (1978), a prosecution which was based upon a claim that defendant took certain specified personal property from his former wife which was awarded her in the divorce decree. We have grave doubts about the propriety of prosecutions such as this which deal with matters which generally are better left to the family court rather than the criminal court. See State v. Mayhood, 308 Minn. 259, 241 N.W.2d 803 (1976). In any event, we conclude that the evidence of defendant's guilt was insufficient as a matter of law to support the verdict or to support a reduction of the conviction to a lesser offense. Accordingly, defendant's conviction is reversed outright and a judgment of acquittal ordered.
Reversed.