Minn. Sentencing Guidelines Commission holds public hearing on 2025 amendments; director urges split of fentanyl-exposure offense and narrower deputy-assaultcon

The Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission held a public hearing July 17, 2025, in the Afton Room at the Department of Corrections Central Office in Saint Paul to consider proposed modifications to the 2024 Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines that incorporate changes from the 2025 regular session laws and technical fixes effective Aug. 1, 2025, and Jan. 1, 2026. Executive Director Nate Reitz presented two targeted revisions he said will improve clarity and better reflect legislative intent.

Reitz told commissioners he now recommends treating the new fentanyl-exposure offense as entirely separate from the existing methamphetamine-exposure crime and adding the fentanyl offense to section six’s permissive consecutive-sentencing list. "I now recommend treating the new fentanyl exposure offense as entirely separate from the existing methamphetamine exposure crime," he said, noting the two statutes differ in protected populations and the substances they reach.

Reitz also recommended narrowing staff-drafted language about mandatory consecutive sentences for assaults on sheriff’s deputies by persons in custody under Minnesota Statute section 609.2232, paragraph b. He said his earlier draft reflected two misunderstandings: it treated all paragraph b assaults as requiring prison commitments, and it cast the consecutive-sentencing change too broadly. "The new language for section 2f1a13 should only cover clause 2 and must explicitly incorporate clause two's requirement that the assailant received an executed sentence for a crime the assailant was in custody for at the time of the assault," Reitz said.

Reitz explained the distinction using a hypothetical: a defendant jailed pretrial on a separate charge who assaults a deputy and is later convicted and committed for the original charge would fall under clause b2 and, under his proposed language, would be subject to presumptive consecutive sentencing. He said clauses 1 and 3 are either already covered by existing guidelines or do not require consecutive sentencing and therefore should not be broadened by the staff change.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions. Commissioner Moore asked whether written versions of the proposed corrections were available; Reitz said he provided a copy to members earlier that day and expected an updated draft to be posted on the commission website for public review "today or tomorrow at the very latest." Commissioner Middlebrook pressed whether the proposed language would cover clause b2; Reitz said the revised draft was intended to do so and to be narrower than the June draft.

Chair Kelly Lynn Mitchell reviewed public-hearing procedures at the start of the meeting and said the commission had opened a five-calendar-day written comment period that will close at the end of July 22, 2025. One person (Director Reitz) registered to testify in person; no additional in-person or remote registrants provided the required contact information during the hearing. The commission will reconvene at 1 p.m. July 24, 2025, in the same room (remote participation optional) to consider final adoption or rejection of the proposed package.

The record will remain open for written comments submitted by mail or email to sentencing.guidelines@state.mn.us through July 22, 2025. No formal vote or adoption occurred at the July 17 hearing; the commission took testimony and left next-step decisions to the July 24 meeting.