Defendant May Base Challenge To Use of License Revocation to Enhance Criminal Charge On Incompetence At Time Of Revocation

Anderson v. Commissioner of Public Safety, Minn.Ct.App., 5/9/2016.  Mr. Anderson filed an implied consent proceeding to try to rescind the revocation of his license.  He filed this implied consent long after the 30 day limitations period.  Mr. Anderson said that as part of the criminal charges that resulted in his license revocation he'd been found incompetent to stand trial.  Because the revocation was now being used to enhance a pending DWI prosecution, the revocation violated his due process rights.

The court of appeals said that the 30 day limitations period is actually jurisdictional, so the court had no authority to hear the implied consent. However, the court does say that the state's use of a revocation that occurred when Mr. Anderson was mentally incompetent may be a violation of due process.  The place to make that due process claim is the criminal case where the state seeks to use the revocation:

However, an implied-consent proceeding “is not the proper forum in which to raise” a challenge to the state’s use of a revocation as a criminal enhancement. Davis, 509 N.W.2d at 389. “Instead, such arguments should be raised at the time a person is charged with” a crime. Id. District courts in criminal cases must scrutinize the use of such enhancements. The circumstances in this case may well constitute one of the “unique” cases in which a criminal defendant may collaterally attack a revocation to prevent it from serving as an enhancement. See State v. Schmidt, 712 N.W.2d 530, 538 (Minn. 2006)...