It is important to understand that an arrest for D.W.I. causes at least two separate legal proceedings to begin. At a minimum there will be a proceeding in criminal court to deal with the alleged criminal offenses involved, and a separate administrative legal proceeding to revoke the person's driver's license. Under certain circumstances there may also be proceedings to impound the license plates from the person's vehicle and possibly even to seize and forfeit the vehicle itself. All of these consequences can arise out of the same set of circumstances. Legally, however, they are treated as separate matters. In order to understand the overall situation as completely as possible, try to keep the various legal proceedings separate in your thinking. The criminal law issues and consequences will be discussed in this section, and the other proceedings will be covered in following pages.
Minnesota Statute Section 169.121 states that it is a crime for any person to drive, operate or be in physical control of any motor vehicle when:
- the person is under the influence of alcohol;
- the person is under the influence of a controlled substance;
- the person is under the influence of a combination of alcohol and drugs;
- the person's alcohol concentration is 0.10% or more.
Under the current interpretation of this law, the term "any motor vehicle" includes every vehicle which is self-propelled. This includes cars, trucks, motorboats, motorcycles, snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, riding lawn mowers and even golf carts.
A separate subdivision of the statute also makes it a crime to refuse to submit to a chemical test of the person's blood, breath or urine.
Under most circumstances, a first offense for driving while under the influence is a misdemeanor level offense. This means that the maximum possible punishment for the offense is up to 90 days in jail and up to a $700.00 fine.
There are, however, certain circumstances which can make even a first offense into a gross misdemeanor. For instance, even in a first offense situation if the driver's alcohol test is 0.20% or more, if there is a passenger in the vehicle who is under the age of 16 or the drinking driver causes an accident which injures someone, the case will be classified as a gross misdemeanor. This means the maximum possible punishment is up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $3,000.00.
Other circumstances can also cause a case to be treated as a gross misdemeanor. A second offense for driving while under the influence within five years of a prior driving while under the influence offense, or within five years of a prior alcohol-related license revocation is a gross misdemeanor, as is a driving while under the influence offense when the driver's license has been revoked for a prior alcohol-related offense and never re-instated.
On January 1, 1998, the Minnesota state legislature enacted a new law creating an even more serious category of alcohol-related driving offenses known as an enhanced gross misdemeanor. Under that law certain offenses, such as a third driving while under the influence charge within ten years of two or more prior offenses, was charged as an enhanced gross misdemeanor. These offenses carried a maximum possible punishment of up to two years in jail and a $3,000.00 fine. In the recent case of State vs. Miller , the Minnesota courts struck down the enhanced gross misdemeanor category on technical grounds. So for now, the most serious category of DWI is a gross misdemeanor. It is very likely, however, that the state legislature will pass new legislation to either correct the defects in the previous enhanced gross misdemeanor law or perhaps even create a new felony level DWI.
If a person pleads guilty or is found guilty of a DWI, the final decision regarding sentencing is in the hands of the judge. The defense attorney and prosecutor can make suggestions, but the judge is not necessarily required to follow them. Sentences vary dramatically from county to county and from judge to judge.
In misdemeanor cases there is no mandatory jail sentence, so the judge is free to impose a sentence which does not include jail time if he or she feels that is appropriate given the facts and circumstances of the case. In Hennepin County, for example, the sentence in a first offense misdemeanor DWI might include some community work service in lieu of any jail time. Some sentences include a week-end in jail, while others include neither jail nor community service. In addition to the possibility of jail time or community service, there will be a fine with surcharges and a requirement that the defendant complete an Alcohol Problem Assessment interview with a probation officer and follow any recommendations the probation officer makes regarding alcohol education.
Sentencing in a gross misdemeanor includes a mandatory minimum of thirty days of jail time. Depending on the circumstances, the sentence can include as much as a year in jail, but it cannot technically include less than thirty days. The law does leave open the possibility that the defendant does not have to serve all the time actually in custody. A minimum of 48 hours of the thirty day sentence must be served in custody. Beyond that, at the judge's discretion, the rest of the sentence could be served with work-release privileges or even on an electronic home monitoring system. The sentence in a gross misdemeanor would also include a fine with surcharges, an Alcohol Problem Assessment interview and the requirement to complete any probation recommendations.