New rule allows agreements without plea

BISMARCK (AP) — A potential medical school student facing underage drinking charges, a businessman who agrees to repay missing money.

The cases are examples of possible uses of a new state court rule under which some criminal cases can be settled without a plea if the judge, the defendant and attorneys agree.

“There can be a financial penalty, counseling, but there’s no finding of guilt,” said Fargo defense attorney Bruce Quick, who pushed for the new rule. It took effect in March, after approval by a state committee of judges and lawyers and by the state Supreme Court.

Mike Hagburg, a staff attorney for the court’s Joint Procedures Committee, said prosecutors always have had the power to decide whether to file charges. “What this rule does really is set up sort of a more formal framework,” he said.

The defendant is required to agree to certain conditions that are approved by a judge, and the agreement becomes public record, Quick said. If the defendant violates the agreement, the case could go to trial.

Other states have had similar rules for years, Quick said. It’s known as pretrial diversion or is sometimes called deferred prosecution. Quick said it can be used for any crime, but he and others predict its use will be limited.

“Quite honestly, if a prosecutor can prove a serious case, they’re not going to defer it,” he said.

It could be used in cases that are considered minor to save the time and money of a trial, he said, or cases in which attorneys on both sides might have problems with proof.

“Usually it’s done for relatively minor offenses and first-time offenders,” Burleigh County prosecutor Richard Riha said. “It pretty much formalizes what we used to do years ago. It takes up less of the court’s time.

“The defendant says, ‘Yeah, they’ve got enough to convict me but we’re entering into this agreement and I can behave,”‘ Riha said.

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