I need to find out if there is a way in MN to have my criminal matter reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor level. My sentence was given a stay of adjudication with community service work. However, I do have supervised probation which is costing me money, which as I am currently unemployed, is becoming a severe hardship on me. That combined with an additional fee charged each month for community service work has become almost impossible. I was given 200 hours, and I have so many physical and emotional problems that finding me work to donate is also causing several problems.

What I need to have done is my felony reduced to a misdemeanor, my probation switched to unsurpervised and my community service work hours reduced. I have completed over 100 of the hours, but I just recently was released from the hospital after a weeks stay as my emotional state was in severe turmoil. Is there any MN legal statutes, laws, or rules of criminal law that I can use when I try to attempt getting this thing changed. My probation officer is fully in agreement with changing the supervised to unsupervised as she is fully aware of my financial status. If I forgot to mention, I plead guilty to the offiense, not found guiilty, was never given any jail time stayed or otherwise, just the 200 CSW.

I would appreciate any advice I an get on this matter.

A plea has already been entered in the case and sentence has been passed. The court isn't going to entertain changing a felony to a misdemeanor just because you're having difficulties meeting the community service hours for your probation. It MIGHT entertain changing the TERMS of your probation, particularly if your probation officer is willing to go to bat on your behalf that you're giving it an honest try - but you need to ALSO know that as far as the court is concerned, you've been given probation instead of incarceration...it's SUPPOSED to unpleasant and challenging, and ultimately, the judge could decide to vacate probation and have you complete your sentence behind bars. This is one of those "be careful what you wish for" scenarios.

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While pointers can be helpful, ultimately the number one lesson in any legal action is: don't take legal advice from books, family, friends, co-workers, police officers, grocery clerks, web sites, or people on legal message boards. The only person who can give YOU legal advice is YOUR attorney.

http://www.aardvarc.org

I agree with aardvarc on this one. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.