MN - STATE v. HANSON

Original Article

Excerpt:
In 1996, appellant Hanson was charged with rape, misdemeanor indecent exposure, and first-degree burglary in California. The rape charge was dismissed, but appellant was convicted of misdemeanor indecent exposure and first-degree burglary. On this basis, appellant is allegedly required to register as a predatory offender in Minnesota.

Appellant moved to Minnesota in 2004 and registered with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) as a predatory offender. In February 2009, he was incarcerated for domestic assault. He was paroled in January 2010 and registered his change of address with the BCA in February 2010. In April 2010, he moved to the Cochran halfway house in Hastings, allegedly at the direction of his corrections officer, but did not register his new address. When asked by Cochran counselors, appellant twice denied being a sex offender. In June 2010, Cochran informed local police that appellant's corrections officer reported appellant as an unregistered predatory offender. Police met with appellant, who claimed that he thought his corrections officer had registered his recent change of address, as the officer had done in the past. Appellant's corrections officer advised the police that he had not registered appellant's change of address and that appellant was responsible for doing so. The state charged appellant with failing to register as a predatory offender.

Appellant pleaded guilty. The transcript of the guilty plea hearing reveals that the parties and the district court believed that appellant was required to register because he had been convicted of a crime in California arising out of the same set of circumstances for which he was initially charged with rape, and he violated the registration statute by lying to Cochran counselors about his status as a sex offender. Accordingly, appellant testified that he (1) knew he was required to register as a predatory offender, (2) never notified the BCA of his new address, and (3) falsely told Cochran counselors that he was not a convicted sex offender. The district court accepted appellant's plea and convicted him of the charged offense. This appeal follows.

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