As part of Lundgren & Johnson, PSC, Criminal Defense Attorney’s series, “Criminal Legal Terms Defined/Explained,” criminal defense lawyer David R. Lundgren explains Minnesota’s definition of “Omnibus Hearing.”
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Transcript of “Omnibus Hearing”
Hello. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is David Lundgren. I am a criminal defense lawyer. I practice across the entire state of Minnesota, and my office is located in Minneapolis. Today, I wanted to take some time to talk about and define and explain the legal term: omnibus hearing. I thought I’d pick a little bit more of a more nuanced, a little bit more specific term to the state of Minnesota itself, to maybe throw some of you criminal experts out there a little bit of a curveball, maybe a term that you’re not familiar with, so I can help you better understand it.
So an omnibus hearing, as the term implies, is a hearing where collective issues in the case are decided. And those collective issues involve things like the status of discovery motions to compel, motions to suppress, motions to dismiss, motions regarding an aggravated sentence, and scheduling trial, should a trial be necessary. It’s also the time and place where plea bargaining or potential plea bargaining with the prosecution and the defense takes place.
Let’s go through those issues one by one here. So the status of discovery, the judge will often want to know and will inquire about what the status of the parties’ discovery disclosures are, where those discovery disclosures are at. Meaning, have they been completed? Are there any pending items that will be disclosed in the future? And if so, what?
Discovery is another term for all of the evidence in the case, both on the prosecution side and the defense side. It’s a blanket term that covers all of the evidence in possession of the parties. And the Minnesota Rules of Criminal Procedure require that each side provide the other with their evidence so that there are no surprises or delays at trial based on not having full and complete information from either side.
Oftentimes, or you know, maybe not oftentimes, but sometimes, motions to compel are necessary. So moving on to the second issue. A motion to compel is when one party believes, and typically it’s the defense, that the other has not provided all of their evidence. And whether that’s because they have, they believe that the other party has evidence within their own file, or more often evidence in law enforcement’s possession that the prosecutor has not yet obtained and so therefore they have not been able to provide that to the defense. And if the defendant or defense counsel believes that that evidence exists, then they can file what’s called a motion to compel and ask a judge to order the prosecutor to either disclose the evidence within their file that they have not disclosed or to go and obtain from law enforcement the evidence, the further evidence that’s out there, and then provide that to the defense.
Moving on to motions to suppress, an omnibus hearing is also where motions to suppress are filed. And there can be different types of motions to suppress. There are motions to suppress physical evidence. And motions to suppress physical evidence, as an example, can be based on an illegal search and seizure in violation of either the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, or Article I, Section 10, of the Minnesota Constitution, or both. And if a defendant believes that the evidence that the prosecution has has been obtained in violation of his constitutional rights, then he can request that the court issue a suppression order following a contested evidentiary hearing where law enforcement and any other witnesses that have relevant information to the issue would come in and testify. And it is the state’s burden to prove that any physical evidence that they do possess in the case was obtained legally. And so following the hearing, the judge will issue a legal ruling determining the admissibility of that evidence.
Other types of motions to suppress relate to confessions. And so if a defendant has provided a statement to law enforcement in the case and he believes that statement was either coerced or was obtained in violation of his Miranda rights because he was interrogated in custody without first being Mirandized, he can move the court to suppress those statements. And if the judge believes that the state has not proven the admissibility of those statements, in other words, that the statements were gathered legally and not in violation of the defendant’s rights, if the judge does not believe that the state has met their burden, then those statements will be suppressed.
Other motions are motions to dismiss. A criminal matter can be dismissed for a number of reasons. One would be a speedy trial violation if the state has not brought the defendant to trial in a speedy fashion and the defendant has demanded a speedy trial. A case can be dismissed on those grounds. A case can be dismissed for a lack of probable cause. The state is required to possess probable cause in order to proceed to trial. Probable cause is defined as whether or not an ordinarily prudent person would hold an honest and strong suspicion that the defendant committed the crimes that have been alleged against him. If the state does not have evidence underlying the charges that they’ve brought against a defendant, then the matter would be dismissed for lack of probable cause. And again, that’s another type of motion, another type of issue that can be decided at the omnibus hearing.
Other issues that are dealt with are motions regarding an aggravated sentence. Prior to the omnibus hearing, the prosecutor is required to provide notice to the defense of whether or not it intends to seek an aggravated sentence should there be a conviction in the matter. And in order to do that, in order to proceed with a motion for an aggravated sentence, they have to identify the specific grounds that make this offense more aggravated than a typical offense. And if they have not done that, or if the circumstances don’t fit those legal requirements, a defendant can ask the court to prohibit the prosecutor from proceeding with requesting an aggravated sentence following a conviction.
Other types of issues that are decided at the omnibus hearing are things related to trial, such as scheduling the trial and any pretrial hearings prior to the point of trial.
In addition to that, the omnibus hearing is also the time where the defense counsel and the prosecutor engage in in-depth plea bargain negotiations. And each case is unique and different in that regard. Sometimes defendant has zero interest in pleading guilty. And so those discussions are relatively brief. In other cases, the defendant has a strong interest in resolving his or her case. And so those discussions are more detailed and in-depth. And oftentimes at the time of an omnibus hearing, that is when a negotiated plea bargain is reached and a defendant decides to plead guilty.
And so these are the types of issues that are dealt with at an omnibus hearing. That’s what an omnibus hearing entails in the State of Minnesota. There are other smaller and less common issues that are dealt with at omnibus hearings, depending on the specific type of case involved. But those are the main primary issues.
Do you have any questions about what an omnibus hearing does entail? Any further questions or questions clarifying any information I provided? Feel free to give me a call. I’m always happy to answer the phone and answer any questions that you may have if you are facing criminal charges, or a friend, family member, or loved one are facing criminal charges.
Thanks for taking the time to watch this video. And I hope that if you have any questions that you do reach out. Thank you. Take care.