A Felony Conviction That is Subsequently Deemed a Misdemeanor Qualifies Nonetheless as a Predicate Felony for First Degree DWI

State v. Coleman, Minn.Ct.App., 1/3/2012.  This is a DWI prosecution.  Back in 1990, Ms. Coleman pled guilty to a felony, got a stay of imposition, successfully completed probation, and on discharge the felony dropped to a misdemeanor.

Ten years later, police stopped Ms. Coleman on suspicion of driving intoxicated.  The state charged her with first degree DWI, enhanced to first degree by the 1990 conviction.  She argued that the misdemeanor disposition of that prior felony precluded its use as the required predicate felony by which to enhance the DWI offense.  Here’s what the statute says:

Notwithstanding a conviction is for a felony: . . . (2) the conviction is deemed to be for a misdemeanor if the imposition of the prison sentence is stayed, the defendant is placed on probation, and the defendant is thereafter discharged without a prison sentence.

Minn.Stat. 609.13.  The problem is, this statute does not say that the conviction is deemed to be a misdemeanor for all purposes; in fact, it doesn’t say just when it’s deemed to be a misdemeanor.  (Under the Guidelines, a stay of imposition of sentence is treated the same as a stay of execution and thus counts as a prior felony.)  The appellate court points to other instances in which 609.13 is of no avail to a litigant making a similar argument, so Ms. Coleman’s prior conviction, deemed to be a misdemeanor somewhere, is not so deemed here.