Prosecutor Does Not Have Power to Charge Criminal Contempt of Court For Alleged Probation Violation

State v. Jones, Minn.Ct.App., 12/29/2014.  Polk County’s had this cottage industry going – perhaps unique in the state - that produces criminal contempt of court convictions by the bucketful.  Every time the cops got someone for violating a term of probation the prosecutor would charge the probationer with the crime of contempt of court. 

The court had placed Ms. Jones on probation under a variety of conditions, one of which was that she refrain from using alcohol, if nothing else because she was under age.  The local law picked Ms. Jones up for consumption of alcohol by a minor and disorderly conduct, then threw in criminal contempt of court.  Her lawyer challenged the contempt of court charge for the reason that a contempt charge is inappropriate because other remedies – a probation violation – are available, and because other jurisdictions don’t allow such charging.  It turned out that during a two year stretch some 400 such contempt charges had been brought there.  The trial court agreed with Ms. Jones and dismissed the contempt charge.  (There was no explanation why it took four hundred of these charges to get the court moving.)  The trial court thought that criminal contempt was not a proper consequence for an alleged probation violation, and that the use of the court’s contempt power would be inconsistent with the purposes of contempt.

The state brought a pretrial appeal and the court of appeals agreed with Ms. Jones and the trial court.  Essentially, the court of appeals said that it wasn’t the prosecutor’s business to do the court’s business of protecting the dignity and authority of the court.  A probation violation does not fit within the overall purpose of the court’s contempt power, which is to punish deliberate disruptions of court proceedings and intentional acts of disrespect to the legal process.  Excluding probation violations from conduct that may be charged by a prosecutor as criminal contempt also ensures that noncriminal conduct – for instance, if an adult consumes alcohol – is not converted into criminal conduct.