Ramsey County Attorney outlines charging process, diversion programs and University Avenue case work

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi told the St. Paul Public Safety Committee on a July meeting that charging decisions depend on evidence and prosecutorial discretion, and that diversion and treatment options are often preferred to conviction for low-level offenses.

Choi said prosecutors are not the investigative agency and rely on police referrals. "The prosecutor is not, an investigative agency," Choi said, adding that police typically investigate, arrest or issue citations and then present cases to prosecutors. He described Minnesota’s jurisdictional split between city attorneys (who handle most misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors) and county attorneys (who handle felonies).

Choi also described the use of alternatives to prosecution for cases involving mental health or addiction. "Sometimes we have to acknowledge that processing somebody through the system is not actually the most effective," he said. Choi said Ramsey County diverts many cases and that diversion caseloads can include about 400 people at a time across city and county programs. He said Ramsey County receives roughly 5,000 cases a year and typically charges between "55 to 65 percent." He cautioned that prosecuting without sufficient evidence would be unethical.

Why this matters: Choi’s presentation aimed to clarify how scarce prosecutorial and public-safety resources are prioritized, and to explain why some arrests do not lead to charges. Committee members said the explanation helps city officials understand how their policing and prevention efforts feed into county charging decisions.

On timing and custodial cases, Choi said Minnesota rules require a charging decision for people in custody within a short statutory window. "If you're in custody, what the Minnesota rules require are that you have to make a decision within 48 hours," he said. He said prosecutors prioritize cases that pose greater public-safety risk, such as homicide and aggravated assault, while lower-priority caseloads (property offenses, low-level drug possession) may sit longer on a prosecutor's desk.

Choi described Ramsey County’s treatment-court capacity and other alternatives. He said the county operates four treatment courts — an adult substance-abuse court, a felony DWI court, a mental-health court and a veterans court — and described them as generally at capacity. "The treatment courts, they do an incredible job," he said, noting those courts focus on higher-risk, higher-need participants rather than lower-level cases.

Choi summarized a targeted initiative the county began in August 2024 focused on the University Avenue corridor and Green Line light-rail corridor. The prosecutor’s office labeled cases from that corridor so that prosecutors could seek tailored protections such as stay-away orders and coordinate with Metro Transit Police and Saint Paul Police. Choi said the county charged about 75 percent of those corridor-designated cases and that roughly 29 percent of those had resolved in guilty pleas; a small number proceeded to trial, producing convictions and acquittals in a few cases.

Committee members, including several council members, thanked Choi for the overview and said the information helps the council better align city policing priorities, prevention work and community supports with county prosecution practices. Council members also noted the scale of the fentanyl crisis and the limits it places on care-based interventions for some people.

Choi closed by pointing members to two public data sources: the Ramsey County attorney dashboard and the state DCA crime data explorer for clearance-rate and charging statistics. "If you wanna know what clearance rates are, you could go to the scribe data explorer and you can find out," he said, and he encouraged elected officials to ask police where they can help improve clearance rates for crimes that matter to the public.

Ending: The committee invited follow-up questions and said it would continue coordination with the county attorney's office and law enforcement on corridor work and other public-safety priorities.