Out of State Convictions “Arising out of” the List of Designated Offenses Does not Trigger Predatory Offender Registration

State v. Patterson, Jr., Minn.Ct.App., 8/20/2012.  Back in the day Mr. Patterson, Jr. racked up a table full of criminal charges while living in Illinois; among them were some sex offenses and some theft related type crimes.  He bargained the sex offenses away and pled guilty to unlawful possession of a motor vehicle.  Time goes by.

Mr. Patterson, Jr., moved to Minnesota.  And racked up some more crimes, none of them sex crimes, however.  Eventually he went to prison, got out on parole in 2008, moved into a halfway house, left the halfway house without permission, got found hiding in the basement of his sister’s place.  Got charged with failure to register under Minnesota’s predatory offender law.

No, there’s not paragraph missing here.  The state thought that Mr. Patterson, Jr. was required to register because some of the original charges back in Illinois included sex offenses.  That meant that that unlawful possession of a motor vehicle conviction “arose out of the same circumstances” as the bargained away sex crimes.  Or so the state thought.

It turns out this is true if your crime spree actually took place inside Minnesota.  That’s because the statute, Minn. Stat. 243.166, subd. 1(b(a) says just that: 

(1) the person was charged with . . . a felony violation of or attempt to violate, or aiding, abetting, or conspiracy to commit, any of the following, and convicted of . . . that offense or another offense arising out of the same set of circumstances:
[list of laws prohibiting certain offenses];
(2) the person was charged with . . . a violation of, or attempt to violate, or aiding, abetting, or conspiring to commit [list of laws prohibiting certain offenses], and convicted of . . . that offense or another offense arising out of the same set of circumstances;
(3) the person was sentenced as a patterned sex offender under section 609.3455, subdivision 3a; or
(4) the person was convicted of . . . violating a law of the United States, including the Uniform Code of Military Justice, similar to the offenses described in clause (1), (2), or (3).

The funny thing is, a person with an out of state conviction is required to register only if his or her crime is on the list of offenses enumerated in aforementioned list of offenses.  There’s no “arising out of” catch all for out of state convictions:

the person was convicted of . . . an offense that would be a violation of a law described in paragraph (a) if committed in [Minnesota].” Minn. Stat. § 243.166, subd. 1b(b)(1).

Oops.  It’s probably not too late to get this fixed at the special legislative session said to be scheduled for later this month.