Legal Question in Criminal Law in Minnesota

Re: Stay of Adjudication felony charge

A "Stay of Adjuducation" is a disposition in a criminal case, usually by agreement but sometimes by the authority of the court, where the defendant offers a constitutionally valid guilty plea but the judge does not accept it and instead "stays" or pauses the proceedings prior to accepting the guilty plea, for some period of time, normally conditioned upon various conditions. If the conditions are all met by the defendant, at the end of the stay period, the charge would be dismissed without the plea ever having been accepted by the court, and so, without a "conviction."

When that happens, (1) the defednant was charged with a crime, (2) offered a plea of guilty, (3) was not convicted of a crime, and (4) all of this is part of the public court and law enfrocement agency records, avaialable to the public.

If asked whether ever charged with a crime, the answer would have to be "yes," unless there was an expungement or other similar relief possible or later granted.

Re: Stay of Adjudication felony charge

The charge will show up on your record as pending until the Stay of Adjudication period has passed. At that point, the charge will appear on yoru record as dismissed. Once it is dismissed, you may follow up with an statutory expungement to seal that record.

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