Opinion ID: 1849967
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Case Law in Related Areas

Text: The parties support their respective interpretations of Rule 15.07 by referring to our decisions concerning the division of power between the prosecutor and the court at other stages in the prosecution of a crime. The prosecution of a criminal defendant may move through several potential stages, from a complaint issued by the prosecutor or an indictment returned by a grand jury; to plea negotiations; to the entry of a plea; to the ordering of a stay of adjudication or a stay of imposition or of execution of a sentence; to the execution of a sentence. At one end of this spectrum, bringing charges and plea bargaining, the discretion rests almost entirely with the prosecutor. At the other end of the spectrum, the imposition of the sentence or staying the imposition or execution of a sentence, the discretion rests almost entirely with the court. But the separation of powers is perhaps not as clear for the stages that lie in between.
Streiff relies on two cases involving stays of adjudication to support her view that the district court had the authority to accept her plea to the lesser charges, State v. Krotzer, 548 N.W.2d 252 (Minn.1996) and State v. Olson, 325 N.W.2d 13 (Minn. 1982). Preliminarily, we note that because the act of the court in accepting a plea over the objection of the prosecutor is more intrusive of the prosecutor's charging function than ordering a stay of adjudication, the restriction on the court's authority to accept a plea to a lesser charge would logically be greater than that on the court's authority to order a stay of adjudication. In Krotzer, this court held that the district court had the inherent power to stay adjudication where special circumstances so indicate. 548 N.W.2d at 255. Krotzer was a 19-year-old boy who was charged with statutory rape for having consensual sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend. Id. at 253. Krotzer entered a guilty plea to the prosecutor's charge but requested the court to stay adjudication of his crime. The Department of Corrections, remarking on the lack of aggression in Krotzer's history and the inappropriateness of requiring him to register as a sex offender, recommended that he be placed on probation under a stay of adjudication. The victim's mother agreed. The district court postponed acceptance of the guilty plea and, over the objection of the prosecutor, stayed adjudication and placed Krotzer on probation for 60 months. This court held that the district court had inherent power to stay the adjudication in the furtherance of justice. Id. at 254-55. In Olson, after the defendant had pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife with a dangerous weapon, the district court stayed the 54-month prison sentence for 10 years. 325 N.W.2d at 16. The district court described strong mitigating factors, including the wife's belief that the defendant was a good man and no danger to her, the wife was not seriously hurt (although struck on the arm by a bullet), and the probable loss of the family home and the inability of the children to continue to attend educational programs beyond high school if the defendant was incarcerated. Id. This court held that the district court had the authority to stay the prison term over the prosecutor's objection. Id. But Krotzer and Olson are not particularly helpful to Streiff because in each case, the district court's action took place during the sentencing stage and did not involve a direct intrusion on the charging or plea-bargaining functions of the prosecution. In fact, Krotzer recognized that the court's authority to interfere with the charging function of a prosecutor is much less than its authority in sentencing, stating: Under established separation of power rules, absent evidence of selective or discriminatory prosecutorial intent, or an abuse of prosecutorial discretion, the judiciary is powerless to interfere with the prosecutor's charging authority. 548 N.W.2d at 254 (citations omitted). Moreover, Streiff fails to recognize that this court restricted the holding in Krotzer when it later confirmed that the district court may stay adjudication only where special circumstances are present. State v. Foss, 556 N.W.2d 540 (Minn.1996). This court emphasized in Foss that a stay of adjudication should only be used  sparingly  and only for the purpose of avoiding an injustice resulting from the prosecutor's clear abuse of discretion in the exercise of the charging function. Id. at 541 (emphasis in original). Thus, Foss is even less favorable for Streiff because it recognizes that separation of powers affects not only the authority of the court to directly interfere with the charging function, but also limits the court's authority to indirectly interfere through sentencing. Even more damaging to Streiff's argument is the decision of this court that followed Foss. In State v. Twiss, 570 N.W.2d 487 (Minn.1997), this court reversed the district court's stay of adjudication of the defendant's guilty plea, which had been granted over the objection of the prosecutor based on the possibility that the defendant might lose her job if convicted of a gross misdemeanor. We said that the possible loss of a job is not a special circumstance under Foss. Rather, it is the sort of consequence that commonly attends a conviction of a serious offense, such as the offense in this case. Id. [4] Thus, Streiff's reliance on the stay of adjudication analogy does not support her argument. If the factors relied upon to grant Streiff's Rule 15.07 motion are not special circumstances that would support a court's indirect interference with the charging function through a stay of adjudication, they provide even less support for the court's more direct interference by accepting a plea to a lesser charge.
Streiff argues that because the court had the power to dismiss the charges on its own motion under Minn.Stat. § 631.21 (2002), it had the implied authority to take the less severe measure of accepting a plea to a lesser charge. Section 631.21 provides: The court may order a criminal action, whether prosecuted upon indictment or complaint, to be dismissed. The court may order dismissal of an action either on its own motion or upon motion of the prosecuting attorney and in furtherance of justice. But this argument merely begs the question of what the scope of the authority of the court really is under section 631.21. First, such a dismissal ordinarily would not have the effect of precluding the prosecutor from recharging the accused. In Krotzer, we said: While dismissing the complaint under section 631.21 might have avoided the need for a stay of adjudication, the prosecutor would have been free to reinstate identical criminal charges against Krotzer. 548 N.W.2d at 255. See also City of St. Paul v. Halvorson, 301 Minn. 48, 52, 221 N.W.2d 535, 537-38 (1974) (stating that dismissal under section 631.21 is not appealable, but it is not with prejudice, leaving the prosecutor free to file a new complaint); 8 Henry W. McCarr & Jack S. Nordby, Minnesota Practice-Criminal Law and Procedure § 11.19 (3d ed.2001). Thus, dismissal of a charge under the statute would actually be less intrusive of the prosecutor's charging function because it would be without prejudice to the reinstatement of charges. Second, to the extent that it was argued that such a dismissal might preclude further charges, the statute would raise the same separation of powers issues that were present in Carriere and led the court to imply restrictions on the authority of the court to interfere with the prosecutor's charging function.
The state relies in part on the analogy to the high standard for manifest injustice established by this court, under Minn. R.Crim. P. 15.05, to allow the withdrawal of a guilty plea. We have applied an abuse of prosecutorial discretion standard to define manifest injustice under Rule 15.05 and have confirmed that collateral consequences of a plea, including loss of employment, do not support a finding of abuse of prosecutorial discretion. See Kaiser v. State, 641 N.W.2d 900 (Minn. 2002) (requirement to register as a predatory offender); Alanis v. State, 583 N.W.2d 573 (Minn.1998) (deportation); Barragan v. State, 583 N.W.2d 571 (Minn. 1998) (deportation); Kim v. State, 434 N.W.2d 263 (Minn.1989) (loss of employment). Because allowing the withdrawal of a plea is less intrusive of the prosecutor's discretion than accepting a lesser plea (after withdrawal, the original charge still stands), the restriction on the authority of the court to accept a plea to a lesser offense should be at least as great as that on the court's authority to allow a defendant to withdraw a guilty plea. Thus, manifest injustice under Rule 15.07 should not be interpreted any more broadly than manifest injustice under Rule 15.05as the abuse of prosecutorial discretion.
The state relies in part on the analogy to the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines to argue that factors that do not justify a downward departure under the guidelines should not be considered sufficient to supply manifest injustice under Rule 15.07. Circumstances involving employment or family status are specifically excluded from consideration in making a downward departure in sentencing. Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines II.D.1. If such factors do not support a sentencing departure, which only indirectly interferes with the prosecutor's charging function, they should likewise provide no support for the acceptance of a plea to a lesser charge, which directly interferes with the charging function. We conclude that the standard of proof required to establish a manifest injustice under Rule 15.07 is at least as high as that required under Rule 15.05, which necessitates a showing of abuse of prosecutorial discretion. We hold that the factors relied upon by the district court here do not establish an abuse of prosecutorial discretion. Reversed and remanded.