Trial Court Cannot Issue Order to Vacate & Dismiss Misdemeanor Upon Successful Completion of Probation Over Prosecutor’s Objections Absent Abuse of Prosecution Discretion in the Charging Function

State v. Martin, Minn.Ct.App., 7/7/2014.  Mr. Martin pled guilty to a misdemeanor of engaging in prostitution.  Without objection, the court stayed imposition of sentence for one year and gave Mr. Martin credit for the one day he spent in jail.  Over the city attorney’s objections, however, the trial judge also ordered that upon successful completion of probation the charge would be dismissed one year hence. 

The city attorney, not so much prosecuting as erecting, john by john, a monument of Hawthorne Hector Prynne’s, appealed.  Is judicial shaming effective in changing behaviors?  More so than that first night in goal?

The court of appeals concludes that the trial court’s order is the equivalent of a stay of adjudication.  In that case, neither statutes nor case law help Mr. Martin.  Minn.Stat. 609.095(b) says that absent an agreement of the parties, a district court may not refuse to adjudicate the guilt of a defendant who tenders a guilty plea.  Case law establishes that in the absence of an agreement, the district court can stay adjudication of guilt only in cases in which there is a clear abuse of prosecutorial discretion in charging.  State v. Colby, 657 N.W.2d 897 (Minn.Ct.App. 2003).  The court of appeals reverses the trial court’s order to vacate and dismiss.