Legal Question in Criminal Law in Minnesota

Re: Can a police officer follow and pull over in a different jurisdiction

A police officer has a lot of latitude to leave his jurisdiction if he is acting within the scope of his duties at the time. The typical case usually involves an officer in some type of "hot pursuit" of someone, but that did not seem to happen in your case. If you raise this defense, saying that the cop was not within the scope and course of his regular duties by leaving his jurisdction, the cop will most likely have some kind of response to it (your car looked suspicious so he was tailing you for awhile, he was on his way to some other official place, etc.). However, you should definitely raise the defense to the prosecutor, either by yourself or through an attorney, because the prosecutor may give you a better deal in exchange for not having to combat your defense.

Re: Can a police officer follow and pull over in a different jurisdiction

While this sort of defense has been effective in the past at times, under certain circumstances, it has been only exceedingly rarely. Depending upon the facts of your situation, chances are slim that this defense will be effective, however it may still be worth further research and investigation before ruling it out.