A charge that only supports a citation does not remove anyone from a house. This is the link that killed the previous market.
1 · Minn. Stat. § 609.605, subd. 1(b)(4) — trespass (2025 edition)
“A person is guilty of a misdemeanor if the person intentionally: … (4) occupies or enters the dwelling or locked or posted building of another, without claim of right or consent of the owner or the consent of one who has the right to give consent, except in an emergency situation;”
The ellipsis omits clauses (1) to (3), which cover other conduct. Clause (3) is the one that requires a demand first — "trespasses on the premises of another and, without claim of right, refuses to depart from the premises on demand of the lawful possessor" — and clause (4), the dwelling clause, does not. "Dwelling" is defined in subd. 1(a)(2) as "the building or part of a building used by an individual as a place of residence on either a full-time or a part-time basis."
Read it at the source →2 · Minn. Stat. § 609.605, subd. 1(b) — the grading (2025 edition)
“A person is guilty of a misdemeanor if the person intentionally:”
THIS IS THE LINK THAT KILLED A PREVIOUS MARKET ELSEWHERE — an offense graded so low that the arrest power runs out. Minnesota grades this a misdemeanor, and the next two links are what Minnesota law does at that grade. Read them in order. (The gross-misdemeanor grades in this section, at subds. 2 and 5, are for shelters for battered women and for posted agricultural land.)
Read it at the source →3 · Minn. Stat. § 629.34, subd. 1(c) — when arrest may be made without warrant (2025 edition)
“A peace officer or part-time peace officer who is authorized under paragraph (a) or (b) to make an arrest without a warrant may do so under the following circumstances: (1) when a public offense has been committed or attempted in the officer's presence; (2) when the person arrested has committed a felony, although not in the officer's presence; (3) when a felony has in fact been committed, and the officer has reasonable cause for believing the person arrested to have committed it; (4) upon a charge based upon reasonable cause of the commission of a felony by the person arrested;”
Read what clauses (2) to (4) are limited to: FELONIES. The remaining clauses of subd. 1(c), which we have not quoted here, extend the felony-style power to a short, closed list of specific offenses — certain gross misdemeanors under §§ 609.52, 609.595, 609.631, 609.749 and 609.821, restraining-order violations, and nonfelony domestic abuse within the preceding 72 hours. Trespass under § 609.605 is not on that list. So for a trespass the operative clause is (1), and it turns on the officer's presence.
Read it at the source →4 · Minn. R. Crim. P. 6.01, subd. 1(a) — mandatory citation issuance in misdemeanor cases
“In misdemeanor cases, peace officers who decide to proceed with prosecution and who act without a warrant must issue a citation and release the defendant unless it reasonably appears: (1) the person must be detained to prevent bodily injury to that person or another; (2) further criminal conduct will occur; or (3) a substantial likelihood exists that the person will not respond to a citation.”
THIS IS THE LINK THAT DECIDES WHETHER ANYONE LEAVES THE BUILDING TONIGHT, and it is a rule of court rather than a statute — which is why almost nobody writing about squatters in Minnesota mentions it. The rule continues: "If the officer has already arrested the person, a citation must issue and the person must be released, unless any of the circumstances in subdivision 1(a)(1)-(3) above exist." We fetched this from the Revisor's court-rules server on 2026-07-14; unlike the statutes above, the Revisor does not publish a year-versioned URL for the court rules, so confirm the current text before relying on it. We draw no conclusion about what an officer must or may do here. Read it and decide.
Read it at the source →5 · Minn. Stat. § 609.582, subd. 3(a) — burglary in the third degree (2025 edition)
“Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever enters a building without consent and with intent to steal or commit any felony or gross misdemeanor while in the building, or enters a building without consent and steals or commits a felony or gross misdemeanor while in the building, either directly or as an accomplice, commits burglary in the third degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than five years or to payment of a fine of not more than $10,000, or both.”
We publish this link because the two links above it turn on whether the offense is a felony, and this is where a felony could come from. We draw no conclusion from it. The intent element — "with intent to steal or commit any felony or gross misdemeanor" — is a question of FACT about the person in the building, and it is not established by the mere fact that they are in it. Whether it is present is for the officer and the prosecutor, and never for us.
Read it at the source →These are the provisions, in order. We have not drawn a conclusion from them — that is not ours to draw.