As a licensed nurse working in Minnesota, you already understand many of the laws, rules, regulations, and requirements that apply to your job. You may also know that a criminal conviction may affect your ability to get or renew your license. But what happens if you are accused of committing domestic abuse – whether you're charged with domestic assault or an order of protection is issued against you based on an allegation of domestic abuse. Do you need to report either of those to the BON and if you do, will it affect your license?
While generally speaking, you do not have to report allegations of domestic abuse that have not resulted in a criminal conviction; it's important to understand when you do need to be concerned about when someone has accused you of domestic violence. The Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team is here to help you make sure you know what you need to do and when, protect your rights, and defend your license if the Minnesota Board of Nursing opens a misconduct investigation against you. Call us at 888.535.3686 or fill out our contact form, and we will schedule a confidential consultation with you to discuss your situation.
Domestic Assault in Minnesota
Minnesota criminalizes domestic assault, which is defined by statute. Domestic assault can be charged as a misdemeanor, a gross misdemeanor, or a felony, depending on the situation. In each case, it applies when the defendant
- Intentionally causes someone to fear that they will suffer “immediate bodily harm or death” or
- Intentionally causes someone bodily harm or attempts to do so
In both cases, the victim of a crime of domestic assault must be a “family or household member.” This is also defined by Minnesota law. A “family or household member” includes:
- Spouses and former spouses
- Parents
- Children
- People related by blood
- People who presently live together or who lived together in the past
- People with whom the defendant has a child in common
- Either the man or woman “if the woman is pregnant and the man is alleged to be the father”
- People who are in a “significant romantic or sexual relationship”
The different classes of the crime of domestic assault – misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor, and felony – depend on whether the defendant has been convicted or pled guilty to a domestic violence-related offense in the past. If the defendant has one such conviction or guilty plea within the past 10 years, they can face a gross misdemeanor charge, which can result in a sentence of up to 364 days in jail and a fine of up to $3000. If the defendant has two such convictions or guilty pleas within that 10-year period, they can face a felony charge. This can result in a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
A conviction of misdemeanor domestic assault can result in a 90-day jail sentence and a fine of up to $1000.
Licensed nurses in Minnesota are not required to immediately report criminal allegations to the Minnesota Board of Nursing. While there is no specific obligation to report criminal convictions to the BON, courts in the state are required by law to report to the BON when a nurse is found to be guilty of certain crimes, including:
- Any felony or gross misdemeanor
- Violating federal or state narcotics or controlled substances laws
- DUIs
- Medicare or Medicaid abuse or fraud
As a result, if you are convicted of domestic assault at the gross misdemeanor or felony level, your conviction will be reported to the BON – as will any other conviction at either of those levels.
In addition, when you renew your nursing license, you are likely to be asked whether you have ever been convicted or entered a guilty plea or no contest (nolo contendere) plea to any crime – including misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor, and felony crimes. The BON expects you to disclose any such convictions – even where your conviction has been expunged, dismissed, stayed, deferred, or pardoned. You do not need to disclose “petty misdemeanors” – offenses that are not considered crimes and do not come with any jail time – or violations of local ordinances such as building or property codes.
It's extremely important when it comes to your license renewal to pay close attention to the questions you're asked and to fully and completely disclose any past criminal history. If you fail to do so, you can face discipline for that failure – on top of any discipline you might face as a result of the conviction or plea itself.
If you aren't sure about whether or not you need to disclose any criminal charges or convictions, contact the Lento Law Firm's Criminal Defense Team for help. Our experienced attorneys understand the laws, rules, and regulations that apply to licensed nurses in Minnesota and are here to help you make sure you meet your reporting obligations. We can also help you defend yourself if the BON decides to open an investigation or disciplinary proceeding as a result of any convictions or guilty pleas that you may report.
Orders for Protection in Minnesota
An order for protection is a court order that directs the person named in the order not to have contact with the person who requested it, as well as providing other relief. These issue when the person who requests the order files a petition with the court claiming that domestic abuse has occurred, and when the court determines that the facts support issuing the order of protection. This kind of proceeding is not a criminal one. If an order for protection issues against someone, they have not been convicted of a crime. As a result, being named in an order of protection is not something that needs to be reported to the Minnesota Board of Nursing.
That said, a violation of an order for protection can be prosecuted as a crime. That is why it's very important to have a clear understanding of what you are required to do and prohibited from doing if you are served with an order for protection. Ignoring the order, or even misunderstanding what it says, can result in you being prosecuted for violating it – even if your violation was accidental and even if the person who asked the court for the order of protection said it was okay for you to violate it.
Orders for protection can be very broad. They can apply to any “family or household member” – defined in the same way as for a domestic assault charge. The conduct that can form the basis for an order of protection includes “domestic abuse,” which is defined as follows when committed against a “family or household member:”
- Causing physical harm, bodily injury, or committing assault
- Putting someone in fear of suffering physical harm, bodily injury, or assault
- Making “terroristic threats”
- Committing criminal sexual conduct
- Committing sexual extortion
- Interfering with an emergency call
Because an order for protection is designed to do just what it says – protect the person who requests it – there are a wide range of things that the order can require as well as prohibit. These include:
- Ordering the individual not to commit acts of domestic abuse
- Prohibiting the person named in the order from having any contact with the petitioner
- Prohibiting the person from entering their own home if they had shared it with the petitioner
- Excluding the person from a “reasonable area surrounding” the home where the petitioner lives
- Requiring the person to stay away from the petitioner's workplace
- Awarding temporary custody of children to the petitioner
- Requiring the person named in the order to pay temporary child support, spousal support, or both
- Ordering the person named in the order to participate in counseling
- Prohibiting the person named in the order from selling or transferring ownership of certain property
- Requiring the person named in the order to continue any existing insurance coverage
As noted above, even though an order of protection is not a criminal penalty, you can be prosecuted for violating an order of protection. Conviction can lead to anywhere from three days to five years in jail or prison, depending on the circumstances and whether the defendant has one or more past convictions for a domestic violence-related offense.
Where this can trip you up is if the person who petitioned the court for the order of protection reaches out to you – even though you're directed to have no contact with the person – and you begin a dialogue that is itself a violation of the order, and that leads you to further violations of the order. Even if you do so with the petitioner's okay, you can be prosecuted for violating the order – because it's the judge who decides what you are and are not permitted to do.
It's very important to proceed very carefully if you or the petitioner want to change the scope of an order of protection. You should both work through your attorneys and not communicate directly unless you are permitted to do so by the order of protection.
Abuse Allegations, Orders of Protection, and Your Nursing License
While you may not need to disclose pending criminal domestic assault allegations or orders of protection that have been issued against you to the BON, that does not mean you won't face a disciplinary investigation or proceeding as a result of either. That's because anybody can file a misconduct complaint against a nurse. It doesn't have to be a patient, the family of a patient, or a co-worker.
Once the BON receives the complaint, it will review it to decide whether it alleges any conduct that may violate the nurse's obligation to be able to provide competent care to patients. If it does, the BON may open an investigation. In that case, you'll be notified and should contact the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team as soon as possible. We regularly help nurses protect their rights during misconduct investigations and can act as your point of contact with the BON's investigator on your behalf. We can also prepare you for any interview you may face and can be there with you when it happens to help make sure you only answer fair, understandable questions.
An investigation may also happen if you are convicted of a crime and the crime is reported to the BON or you self-report it when you renew your license. This is why it's important to make sure your lawyer in your criminal case understands that you have a nursing license and that how your case resolves itself may have an effect on that license. The Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team can offer advice on the potential issues that a plea deal may raise with the BON so that your attorney in your criminal case can take them into account when defending you against the criminal charges you face.
The Lento Law Firm Can Help Protect Your Nursing License in Minnesota
If you are facing criminal charges for domestic assault or a petition for an order of protection has been filed against you, it's important to understand how either type of case may affect your nursing license. You also need to know what you are required to report to the Minnesota BON and when you're required to report it. When you work with one of the experienced attorneys from the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team, you'll have someone by your side who can make sure that you provide the proper disclosures to the BON at the right time. We can also make sure those disclosures provide the BON with much of the information they need to decide whether to move forward with a misconduct investigation.
If you do face a disciplinary investigation or misconduct proceeding, the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team has years of experience helping nurses and other licensed professionals through those kinds of situations. We can protect your rights during investigations and defend you from start to finish if the BON brings charges against you. We understand how to negotiate with your BON to resolve matters without a hearing, and when a hearing becomes necessary, we know what it takes to defend against misconduct charges.
Contact the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team with any questions you may have about your Minnesota nursing license – whether or not they relate to domestic abuse allegations. You can reach us at 888.535.3686, or you can fill out our contact form, and we will schedule a confidential consultation. Your nursing license is one of your most valuable assets – let us help you protect it!
