A trailblazing drug crime attorney in your corner

The State of Minnesota can issue drug charges as a summons or as a warrant. If you were sent a summons in the mail, you can appear in court without being arrested. If your case was charged as a warrant, you will be arrested unless you post the bail amount or hire an attorney who can negotiate to quash the warrant.

At your first appearance, the judge and attorneys will set your case for a pre-trial or omnibus hearing to argue the issues. The judge may adjust bail amounts, and your attorney will argue on your behalf for reduced bail, no bail, or terms of release that do not involve money. This may mean random drug testing and an agreement to remain law-abiding. Other conditions the court believes are necessary for public safety or to guarantee you will reappear may also be set.

The State of Minnesota must give you (or you through your attorney) all of the evidence in your case.

Once you have that evidence, a good defense attorney will look for ways to challenge its admissibility. They may even be able to challenge probable cause if there isn’t sufficient evidence for the case to proceed.

Some common challenges raised in drug cases, include invalid traffic stops by law enforcement, invalid expansions of stops to search you or your vehicle, and whether any informants provided enough information for law enforcement to justifiably rely on what they provided.

Shauna has raised these issues numerous times and had criminal drug cases dismissed for these Constitutional violations—she is a fierce advocate in this field of litigation.

She was also the first person in the State of Minnesota to discover a warrant filed under seal, in a different county, to live-time track her client that wasn’t even provided to the prosecutor.

E-surveillance issues, like these, are rapidly growing in drug cases. Knowing how to challenge Constitutional violations that arise from them is a critical skill your defense attorney should know about and use. Shauna has presented continuing education courses to Minnesota lawyers and judges statewide on this subject, most recently at the Crime and Justice Institute in the summer of 2022. She has also attended national trainings on challenging drug issues through conferences put on by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the international hacking conference, DEFCON in 2013 and 2015.

Additionally, mishandling of evidence, poor testing of drugs in labs, and issues with testing whether a person is drug-impaired are all ripe for evidentiary challenges. And dog sniffing searches, ION searches, and controlled buys all have nuanced challenges that Shauna has fought in court.

If the evidence that drug charges are based on is suppressed, like drugs or a gun, how does the State of Minnesota proceed? Simple: They don’t. The case gets dismissed.

Shauna has also made motions to disclose alleged informants. Quite often, when the Minnesota government feels the heat, the drug case goes away. Perhaps they didn’t want to burn an informant—perhaps one never existed.

Warrants to search places are ripe for challenge, as well. If there is a material misrepresentation used by law enforcement to obtain the warrant, the evidence obtained from it must be suppressed as “fruit of the poisonous tree.” If a warrant is too broad in scope or duration, the evidence obtained following the warrant should also be suppressed.

It’s important to recognize that snitches are usually criminals themselves. What’s more, if police aren’t required to provide any information regarding the past reliability of the informant, without revealing their identity, there is no way to verify an informant ever existed or had reliable information at all.

Shauna authored a brief in a case called Mosely, regarding what level of corroboration is sufficient for an informant's information to be enough to search a person's car, home, or person. (Read the brief).

The Minnesota Supreme Court heard oral arguments on June 7, 2023, and a decision has not yet been reached.

Facing charges? It’s critical that you hire a lawyer who understands this and can aggressively advocate on your behalf.

No. As of September 13, 2023, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that law enforcement may not search a motor vehicle based on the smell of marijuana alone. It can be a factor considered, like alcohol, but it cannot be the sole reason.

Shauna coauthored the winning amicus brief submitted on behalf of the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense lawyers in Torgerson, which addressed the expansion of stops in vehicles based on the smell of marijuana alone.

The laws in this area are changing rapidly in Minnesota. It is critical that you hire an attorney at the forefront of this litigation, as they will have the deep understanding to best litigate your case.

At any time before trial, you may wish to resolve your case for a lesser charge or lessor crime. The State of Minnesota will make an offer and your criminal defense attorney can negotiate for the goals you would like to achieve. These goals may be for a resolution that would avoid jail or prison time, or collateral consequences like job loss and mitigating the potential impact on immigration status. These decisions are based on a thorough review of the evidence and discussions with your attorney about how to best help you find a resolution that works for you when faced with a difficult drug crime charge.

What’s possible?

In Minnesota, without any other knowledge of your case, a grid defines guidelines, placing a general number for a crime based on previous criminal history. This serves as the starting point for resolution in a case, like yours.

These numbers are not mandatory.

Prosecutors can argue for a harsher disposition based on certain factors from a case, called “Blakely,” and they can also agree to what is called a downward departure.

A downward departure can be dispositional—probation instead of prison—or durational—less time than what the guidelines would call for.

These decisions can be influenced by a number of factors: Doing well on conditional release, currently in treatment, taking medications as prescribed, having a supportive family and loved ones, in school or working, etc.

A good criminal defense attorney will paint you as a whole human to the judge and prosecutor to try to achieve a better outcome in your case.

There are several potential case outcomes specific to the State of Minnesota that you should be aware of.

Stay of adjudication

A stay of adjudication means that, while you have pled guilty, the judge has not accepted your guilty plea so you have not been found guilty. And you will not be so long as you complete the terms and conditions of probation. Some drug charges are eligible for an automatic stay of adjudication, and some veterans are as well. (Thank you for your service!)

Stay of imposition

A stay of imposition can mean several things. Often it means that even though you have been found guilty of a felony if you successfully complete the terms of your probation, your charge will drop to a misdemeanor.

Diversion courts

The State of Minnesota has many diversion courts available. These courts seek to give participants the tools and resources necessary to abstain from drug use and take a different path—often with the reward of a lesser sentence. These courts can include drug court, DWI court, veteran’s court, and mental health court.

In Minnesota, you may have a judge or jury trial. It is almost always better to have your drug case tried before a jury of your peers. If a judge wanted to dismiss the case at any point, including after the State of Minnesota presented its case, they could have.

If you are charged with a felony, a jury of 12 of your peers must all agree that you are guilty before you can be convicted of a crime.

You can choose to testify, and a good lawyer will prepare you for that testimony, and speak with you at length before you make this decision. (Shauna has advised her clients both ways. It is ultimately your decision. Shauna has received not guilty verdicts in cases where her clients have chosen to take the stand—and in cases where they have not.)

You have the right to call witnesses, and you can use the power of a subpoena to make them appear in court even if they do not want to.

You have the right to cross-examine (ask questions of) any witness on the stand—your defense lawyer will do this for you.

The State of Minnesota must present its case first, because the burden of proof is upon the government, not you. You do not need to present a case if your strategy is to expose the weakness in the government’s case through evidentiary challenges, but your lawyer may present a case and often will. (Shauna has won jury trials proceeding both ways.)

Hemp is legal in Minnesota and, as of August 1, 2023, marijuana is, too.

For more details about the legalization of marijuana, visit the Minnesota Office on Cannabis Management website.

(Please note: Shauna is not affiliated with this government website.)

Facing a marijuana charge? It’s critical that you hire an attorney at the forefront of this litigation, as they’ll have the deep understanding necessary to present your best case.