North Dakota charge library
Other North Dakota Criminal Offenses
“Other offenses” is a directory label, not a legal theory. This guide compares 20 different North Dakota statutes involving children, incomplete or group crimes, civil protection orders, elections, emergency calls, privacy, firearms, medical practices, and crime proceeds. Use the citation in the complaint to open the matching charge guide.
You will work directly with me.
If you hire me, I start with the actual complaint and alleged date. I identify the precise act, mental state, defined person or setting, incorporated offense, class-setting fact, source evidence, exception, and penalty provision rather than treating a broad category label as the charge.
Begin with the citation, not the page category
The replaced page appeared comprehensive because it repeated the same element sentence, evidence list, and minimum-sentence paragraph for a dozen alternatives. It also omitted eight direct child guides. The result obscured decisive differences. Missing-child reporting turns on caretaker status, a twenty-four- or forty-eight-hour period, child age, knowledge, inability to verify safety, willfulness, and a later reasonable-time question. Reporting a child’s death instead uses a two-hour clock and a health-care/emergency-personnel exception. Neither should be summarized as a generic failure-to-report offense.
Inchoate and related-liability offenses require a different method. Attempt asks for a substantial step and usually derives its class from the target, with express exceptions and possible sentencing-stage reductions. Facilitation requires substantial assistance that the principal actually uses to commit a contemplated or related felony. Solicitation adds persuasion of a particular felony, strongly corroborative circumstances, and an overt act in response. Conspiracy requires agreement plus an overt act and is the same class as its objective. Aiding consummation concerns intentional assistance with crime proceeds or profit after a crime. Those are five distinct theories, not interchangeable labels for “helping.”
For every count, build an element chart using the offense-date statute. Record the charged section and subsection, alleged date, target or predicate offense, prohibited act, culpability, defined relationship or setting, exception or defense, class-setting fact, claimed harm, prior judgment, and evidence source. Then verify amendments, session laws, incorporated definitions, current appellate authority, and sentencing provisions before relying on a present-code summary.
Twenty statutory alternatives and their present classifications
The table and cards reflect the official chapter PDFs checked October 15, 2026. They do not replace offense-date research. A target-derived offense cannot be assigned a ceiling until the target crime and statutory formula are identified.
| Charge guide | Current classification | Maximum or calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Missing Child – Duty to Report – Penalty in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 14-09-35 | Class C felony or Class B misdemeanor | Under thirteen: up to five years/$10,000. At least thirteen but under seventeen: up to 30 days/$1,500. |
| Death of a Child – Duty to Report – Penalty in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 14-09-36 | Class C felony | Up to five years and/or $10,000. |
| Encouraging Minors to Participate in Criminal Street Gang in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 12.1-06.2-03 | Class C felony | Up to five years and/or $10,000. |
| Criminal Attempt in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 12.1-06-01 | Derived from the attempted offense | Ordinarily the same class as the target; AA becomes A, A becomes B, and qualifying not-dangerously-close findings can reduce B to C or C to Class A misdemeanor. |
| Abuse of Child – Mandatory Sentence – Penalty in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 14-09-22 | Class C, B, or A felony | Class C: five years/$10,000; Class B: ten years/$20,000; Class A: twenty years/$20,000. Every conviction carries at least one year of imprisonment. |
| Neglect of Child – Penalty in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 14-09-22.1 | Class C felony | Up to five years and/or $10,000. |
| Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 14-10-06 | Class A misdemeanor or Class C felony | Ordinary theory: 360 days/$3,000. Under-sixteen sexual-performance theory: five years/$10,000. |
| Penalty for Violation of a Civil Protection Order in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 14-07.7-17 | Class A misdemeanor or Class C felony, plus contempt | First violation after service: 360 days/$3,000. Following a conviction, a second or later violation: five years/$10,000. A violation also constitutes contempt of court. |
| Interference with Elections in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 12.1-14-02 | Class A misdemeanor | Up to 360 days and/or $3,000. |
| Interference with Telephone During Emergency Call in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 12.1-21-06.1 | Class C felony or Class A misdemeanor | Intentional: five years/$10,000. Knowing or reckless: 360 days/$3,000. |
| False Representation of Marital Status in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 12.1-31-11 | Class B misdemeanor | Up to 30 days and/or $1,500. |
| Surreptitious Intrusion or Interference with Privacy in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 12.1-31-14 | Class B misdemeanor or infraction | Privacy theories: 30 days/$1,500. Wildlife-device theory: up to a $1,000 fine, subject to the repeat-infraction rule. |
| False Information Prohibited in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 62.1-03-04 | Class A misdemeanor through the chapter general penalty | Up to 360 days and/or $3,000 under § 62.1-03-06. |
| Perception of a Minor’s Sex – Prohibited Practices – Penalty in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 12.1-36.1-02 | Class B felony or Class A misdemeanor | Specified surgical/tissue theories: ten years/$20,000. Specified drug theory: 360 days/$3,000. |
| Selling Handgun to Minors Prohibited – Penalty in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 62.1-03-02 | Class A misdemeanor | Up to 360 days and/or $3,000. |
| Criminal Facilitation in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 12.1-06-02 | Class C felony or Class A misdemeanor | Facilitating a Class A felony: five years/$10,000. Facilitating Class B or C felony: 360 days/$3,000. |
| Criminal Solicitation in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 12.1-06-03 | One class below the felony solicited | The ceiling follows the target: AA to A, A to B, B to C, and C to Class A misdemeanor under the one-class-below formula. |
| Criminal Conspiracy in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 12.1-06-04 | Same class as the objective crime | The target crime supplies the class and ceiling; there is no single conspiracy-wide maximum. |
| Criminal Street Gang Crime – Penalty in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 12.1-06.2-02 | Class C felony | Up to five years and/or $10,000, in addition to analysis of the separately charged underlying offense. |
| Aiding Consummation of Crime in North Dakota N.D.C.C. § 12.1-08-04 | Class C felony, Class A misdemeanor, or Class B misdemeanor | Known A/B felony conduct: five years/$10,000. Known C felony or Class A misdemeanor: 360 days/$3,000. Otherwise: 30 days/$1,500. |
Open the guide matching the complaint
Class C felony or Class B misdemeanor
- Current maximum or consequence
- Under thirteen: up to five years/$10,000. At least thirteen but under seventeen: up to 30 days/$1,500.
- What must be proved
- A statutory caretaker, responsibility for the child at the relevant time, the child’s age, inability to contact the child or verify whereabouts and safety for the applicable period, when the caretaker knew or reasonably should have known the child was missing, and willful failure to report within a reasonable time after that period.
- What changes the analysis
- The definition of caretaker is narrower than everyday use. The clock is twenty-four hours for a child under thirteen and forty-eight hours for a child at least thirteen but under seventeen; the reporting duty then uses an additional reasonable-time question.
Class C felony
- Current maximum or consequence
- Up to five years and/or $10,000.
- What must be proved
- A person who meets the statutory caretaker definition, a child in that caretaker’s care, knowledge of the child’s death or the corpse location, and willful failure to report the relevant fact to law enforcement within two hours after learning it.
- What changes the analysis
- The two-hour period runs from learning the death or location, not from a generalized suspicion. The section does not apply when the death occurs while the child is under the care of a health-care professional or emergency medical personnel.
Class C felony
- Current maximum or consequence
- Up to five years and/or $10,000.
- What must be proved
- The accused was at least eighteen; the other person was under eighteen; the accused knowingly or willfully caused, aided, abetted, encouraged, solicited, or recruited that minor; and the object was participation in a statutory criminal street gang.
- What changes the analysis
- Age records, the gang definition, the meaning of participation, the accused’s actual words or acts, audience, context, membership evidence, and the difference between description, association, and recruitment are central. The section does not bar prosecution under other laws.
Derived from the attempted offense
- Current maximum or consequence
- Ordinarily the same class as the target; AA becomes A, A becomes B, and qualifying not-dangerously-close findings can reduce B to C or C to Class A misdemeanor.
- What must be proved
- The culpability required for the target crime and an intentional substantial step that strongly corroborates firmness of intent. A separate theory covers conduct intended to aid another that would establish complicity if the other committed the crime.
- What changes the analysis
- Preparation is not automatically a substantial step. Identify the target crime and every incorporated element, then test conduct, intent, abandonment evidence, factual assumptions, and the sentencing-stage not-dangerously-close issue. The statute rejects factual or legal impossibility under its stated hypothetical-circumstances rule.
Class C, B, or A felony
- Current maximum or consequence
- Class C: five years/$10,000; Class B: ten years/$20,000; Class A: twenty years/$20,000. Every conviction carries at least one year of imprisonment.
- What must be proved
- A covered parent, adult family or household member, guardian, custodian, or paid caregiver; willful infliction or permitted infliction of the charged injury; injury type; and any class-setting fact such as victim under six, paid-care role, or permanent loss or impairment of bodily-member or organ function.
- What changes the analysis
- “Mental injury” has a statutory functional-impairment definition. Medical causation, timing, alternative caregiver access, knowledge and permission, age, permanent impairment, and theory selection matter. The sentence also requires three evaluations and completion of ordered treatment recommendations as a probation condition.
Class C felony
- Current maximum or consequence
- Up to five years and/or $10,000.
- What must be proved
- A covered parent, adult family or household member, guardian, or other custodian; willfulness; and one charged theory: failure to provide necessary care/control, permission or failure to use reasonable diligence concerning specified places or associations, or permission or failure to use reasonable diligence concerning a forbidden or injurious occupation.
- What changes the analysis
- The complaint should identify the theory rather than use “neglect” as a conclusion. Custody, legal duties, available resources, duration, warnings, efforts, reasonable diligence, actual conditions, witnesses, records, and child-welfare material require careful separation.
Class A misdemeanor or Class C felony
- Current maximum or consequence
- Ordinary theory: 360 days/$3,000. Under-sixteen sexual-performance theory: five years/$10,000.
- What must be proved
- A willful act that encourages, causes, or contributes to delinquency or a statutorily defined child-in-need-of-protection condition; or, for the felony theory, causing a child under sixteen to engage in incorporated sexual conduct in a listed visual representation.
- What changes the analysis
- The state must identify the child-welfare definition or sexual-conduct definition it incorporates. In specified alcohol cases, medical need plus contact with law enforcement or emergency personnel within twelve hours must be considered in mitigation.
Class A misdemeanor or Class C felony, plus contempt
- Current maximum or consequence
- First violation after service: 360 days/$3,000. Following a conviction, a second or later violation: five years/$10,000. A violation also constitutes contempt of court.
- What must be proved
- A qualifying civil protection order under current Chapter 14-07.7, service of a copy on the restrained respondent or individual, conduct violating an actual term, identity, and any prior conviction needed for the felony theory.
- What changes the analysis
- Obtain the signed order, incorporated terms, proof and timing of service, amendments, expiration, alleged contact or conduct, attribution, and certified prior judgment. Chapter 14-07.7 is a 2026 framework, so predecessor law may govern earlier conduct.
Class A misdemeanor
- Current maximum or consequence
- Up to 360 days and/or $3,000.
- What must be proved
- Force, threat of force, or economic coercion; intentional conduct; and either injury, intimidation, or interference because of specified election participation, or conduct intended to prevent voting, qualification, campaigning, or service as an election official or observer.
- What changes the analysis
- The statute covers retaliation and prevention whether or not the actor claims official authority. Preserve the complete communication or act, recipient, election activity, economic relationship, timing, intent, audience, authority, and protected-expression context.
Class C felony or Class A misdemeanor
- Current maximum or consequence
- Intentional: five years/$10,000. Knowing or reckless: 360 days/$3,000.
- What must be proved
- Removal, damage, obstruction, or severing of a telephone, line, part, apparatus, or connected wire; interference with an emergency telephone call; identity and causation; and the culpability alleged for the felony or misdemeanor theory.
- What changes the analysis
- The charge is about interference with a call through the listed acts, not merely an argument near a phone. Device data, dispatch records, audio, physical condition, timing, awareness of the emergency, alternative connection, causation, and intentional versus knowing/reckless conduct select the class.
Class B misdemeanor
- Current maximum or consequence
- Up to 30 days and/or $1,500.
- What must be proved
- The accused lived openly and notoriously with a person of the opposite sex as a married couple, the two were not married to each other, and the accused falsely represented the couple’s status as married to each other.
- What changes the analysis
- The codified text does not criminalize cohabitation by itself. The state must prove the statutory living arrangement and a false representation of marital status; identify the exact statement, recipient, setting, material context, records, and offense-date law.
Class B misdemeanor or infraction
- Current maximum or consequence
- Privacy theories: 30 days/$1,500. Wildlife-device theory: up to a $1,000 fine, subject to the repeat-infraction rule.
- What must be proved
- For privacy theories, intent to intrude/interfere plus surreptitious peeping or device use in a covered place, including a place where a reasonable individual would have an expectation of privacy. For wildlife devices on another’s property, installation while absent without both written permission and required permanent identifying information.
- What changes the analysis
- Property entry is required for subsection 1 but not for every subsection 2 privacy setting. Place, expectation of privacy, surreptitiousness, device function, recording, consent, ownership, permission, tag, and the affirmative defense tied to § 50-10.2-02.1 must be analyzed by theory.
Class A misdemeanor through the chapter general penalty
- Current maximum or consequence
- Up to 360 days and/or $3,000 under § 62.1-03-06.
- What must be proved
- A handgun purchase or other securing of delivery, or application for a license to carry the handgun concealed; information or identity evidence supplied by the accused; falsity; and attribution. The prohibition and the chapter’s general penalty must be read together.
- What changes the analysis
- Do not describe § 62.1-03-04 as unclassified merely because its own sentence omits the class. Obtain the application or transaction record, exact question and answer, identification, recording, correction history, material context, and offense-date chapter text.
Class B felony or Class A misdemeanor
- Current maximum or consequence
- Specified surgical/tissue theories: ten years/$20,000. Specified drug theory: 360 days/$3,000.
- What must be proved
- Covered health-care-provider status, a minor whose perception is alleged to be inconsistent with statutory sex, purpose to change or affirm that perception, a listed surgery/mastectomy/healthy-tissue act or listed drug-supply act, willfulness, and absence of an applicable § 12.1-36.1-03 exception.
- What changes the analysis
- The statute is definition-, purpose-, procedure-, drug-, exception-, and offense-date dependent. Preserve records, informed-consent material, diagnosis, medical purpose, procedure/drug identity and dosage, provider role, timing, and the current judicial status of the law before giving enforceability advice.
Class A misdemeanor
- Current maximum or consequence
- Up to 360 days and/or $3,000.
- What must be proved
- A handgun, a minor, and the accused’s sale, barter, hire, loan, or gift. The state must also overcome the statutory exception if the defense shows a loan or gift for firearm-safety training, target shooting, or hunting under direct adult supervision.
- What changes the analysis
- Age and weapon classification, ownership and transfer, consideration, messages, duration, possession, adult presence, direct supervision, stated and actual purpose, location, and other firearm-disability laws require separate proof.
Class C felony or Class A misdemeanor
- Current maximum or consequence
- Facilitating a Class A felony: five years/$10,000. Facilitating Class B or C felony: 360 days/$3,000.
- What must be proved
- Knowing provision of substantial assistance to a person intending to commit a felony, actual commission of the contemplated or a like/related felony, and use of the assistance in committing it.
- What changes the analysis
- Ready lawful availability of the goods or services is a statutory factor. The section excludes a person whom the target statute or related law expressly or implicitly makes nonaccountable; acquittal or nonprosecution of the principal generally is not a defense.
One class below the felony solicited
- Current maximum or consequence
- The ceiling follows the target: AA to A, A to B, B to C, and C to Class A misdemeanor under the one-class-below formula.
- What must be proved
- A command, inducement, entreaty, or other attempt to persuade another to commit a particular felony; intent to promote or facilitate it; circumstances strongly corroborative of that intent; and an overt act by the solicited person in response.
- What changes the analysis
- Identify the particular felony and overt act. The statute preserves defenses when the accused would be the victim, the conduct would be inevitably incident, or the accused otherwise would not be guilty under the target statute or accomplice law.
Same class as the objective crime
- Current maximum or consequence
- The target crime supplies the class and ceiling; there is no single conspiracy-wide maximum.
- What must be proved
- An agreement with one or more persons to engage in or cause conduct constituting an offense, plus an overt act by any conspirator to effect an objective. The agreement may be explicit or inferred from collaboration or other circumstances.
- What changes the analysis
- Define the objective, participants, agreement evidence, overt act, beginning and end, abandonment, venue, and offense-date target law. Objectives can include escape, distributing proceeds, or concealment/obstruction measures beyond silence; accomplice liability remains a separate § 12.1-03-01 question.
Class C felony
- Current maximum or consequence
- Up to five years and/or $10,000, in addition to analysis of the separately charged underlying offense.
- What must be proved
- Commission of a felony or Class A misdemeanor crime of violence or pecuniary gain; benefit of, direction by, or association with a statutory criminal street gang; and intent to promote, further, or assist gang affairs or obtain gang membership.
- What changes the analysis
- The current section classifies the gang crime itself as Class C. Prove the qualifying predicate, gang definition, nexus, intent, role, communications, group evidence, benefits, direction, and association; association alone does not replace the required intent and underlying crime.
Class C felony, Class A misdemeanor, or Class B misdemeanor
- Current maximum or consequence
- Known A/B felony conduct: five years/$10,000. Known C felony or Class A misdemeanor: 360 days/$3,000. Otherwise: 30 days/$1,500.
- What must be proved
- Intentional aid to another in secreting, disguising, or converting crime proceeds or otherwise profiting from a crime, plus the knowledge and principal-offense class needed for the selected tier.
- What changes the analysis
- This is post-crime proceeds/profit assistance, not a label for every association after an offense. Trace the property or benefit, completed crime, aid, timing, knowledge, intent, valuation, transactions, possession, and target classification.
The source record changes with the statute
Child-reporting cases require a clock built from reliable events
For §§ 14-09-35 and 14-09-36, do not begin with a conclusion that someone “waited too long.” Determine whether the accused was the defined caretaker, when responsibility began and ended, the child’s age, the last verified contact, when the accused knew or reasonably should have known the child was missing, what attempts were made to verify safety, when law enforcement was contacted, and how “reasonable time” applies after the age-specific period. A death-reporting allegation requires separate proof of when the accused learned of the death or corpse location and whether the child was under professional or emergency care when the death occurred. Preserve calls, messages, location data, video, dispatch, medical records, caregiver arrangements, travel records, and witness timelines.
Child abuse and neglect are not proven by a label in a child-welfare record
Section 14-09-22 requires a covered relationship and willful infliction or permitted infliction of the charged injury. The section distinguishes bodily, substantial bodily, serious bodily, and a defined mental injury, and uses victim age, paid-care status, and permanent loss or impairment to select higher classes. Section 14-09-22.1 instead lists three neglect theories. Analyze the precise act or omission, access to the child, legal and practical control, notice, duration, available resources, efforts, medical cause and timing, alternative caregivers, actual condition, reasonable diligence where stated, and expert methodology. Child-welfare findings, medical opinions, and criminal elements overlap only to the extent the governing statute and admissible evidence establish them.
Attempt, facilitation, solicitation, and conspiracy each need the target offense
An inchoate count is incomplete without the supposed objective. Obtain the complaint, probable-cause materials, instructions, target-statute version, communications, surveillance, controlled-operation records, financial transactions, location data, searches, objects, and overt-act allegations. For attempt, ask whether conduct strongly corroborated firm intent and amounted to a substantial step. For facilitation, ask what substantial assistance was knowingly provided, whether the principal intended a felony, which felony was actually committed, and whether that person employed the assistance. For solicitation, identify the particular felony, attempted persuasion, corroborating circumstances, and overt act in response. For conspiracy, identify the agreement, objective, overt act, continuation or abandonment, and each person’s conduct. Mere association, knowledge, presence, or discussion should not substitute for the selected elements.
Gang statutes add definitions and nexus; they do not replace the underlying proof
Section 12.1-06.2-02 requires a qualifying felony or Class A misdemeanor crime of violence or pecuniary gain, the prescribed gang relationship, and a specific gang-directed intent. Section 12.1-06.2-03 requires an adult’s knowing or willful recruitment-type conduct toward a minor. Collect the statutory gang-definition evidence, predicate charging and proof, ages, messages, audience, alleged commands or encouragement, membership claims, social-media context, benefits, direction, and motive. Symbols, relationships, music, photographs, neighborhood, or ordinary association may be evidence in context, but none should be treated as an automatic substitute for a predicate crime, participation, recruitment act, or required intent.
Order, election, and emergency-call cases depend on operative documents and complete context
A protection-order case begins with the order actually in force, every incorporated page, the precise prohibited term, proof and time of service, amendments, expiration, alleged contact, device attribution, location, and certified prior conviction if the felony tier is alleged. A docket label or a petitioner’s understanding is not the operative language. Election interference requires force, threat of force, or economic coercion and specified intentional retaliation or prevention. Preserve the entire communication, relationship, election activity, authority claim, timing, audience, and alleged economic lever. Emergency-call interference requires a listed physical or obstructive act and interference with an emergency call; obtain device and carrier data, dispatch audio, body camera, physical evidence, timing, call status, and evidence distinguishing intentional from knowing or reckless conduct.
Privacy and firearm cases turn on the exact transaction, place, permission, and exception
The privacy statute separates peeping or device use after entry on another’s property, surreptitious conduct in other places where a reasonable person would expect privacy, and unattended wildlife-device installation on another’s property. Map the property, vantage point, device, recording capability, ownership, entry, absence, purpose, consent, written permission, identifying tag, occupant expectation, and statutory affirmative defense. For handgun transfers, prove weapon type, age, sale/barter/hire/loan/gift, possession, adult supervision, and training/target/hunting purpose. For false handgun information, preserve the exact form, question, response, identity evidence, transaction or license application, recording, correction, and § 62.1-03-06 general-penalty link.
Medical-practice allegations require current-law and litigation-status research
Section 12.1-36.1-02 cannot be analyzed from a procedure label alone. Identify provider status, patient age, statutory sex and perception allegations, purpose, diagnosis, procedure or drug, tissue condition, dose, timing, consent material, and every § 12.1-36.1-03 exception. Because legal challenges and amendments can affect application, counsel must verify the statute, session law, injunctions, stays, appellate rulings, and enforceability as of both the alleged conduct and the advice date. The page states codified text; it does not assume every application is constitutionally or procedurally valid.
T.D. v. Wrigley, 2026 ND 162, is now part of that status analysis. The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the challenged chapter against the state-constitutional claims actually before it and applied rational-basis review to the medication prohibition. The opinion also carefully limits its own scope: the appeal did not challenge the surgical provisions, the State did not appeal the district court’s declaration that the Act does not apply when a minor was already receiving any identified treatment before April 21, 2023, and the remaining statutory definitions, exceptions, purpose, provider, procedure or drug, and offense-date facts still must be proved. A case-specific review should also confirm the mandate and any later state or federal order rather than treating the appellate headline as a substitute for current docket research.
Aiding consummation requires proceeds or profit and a tier-specific known crime
Section 12.1-08-04 targets intentional help secreting, disguising, converting, or profiting from crime proceeds. Trace the completed crime, property, account, transfer, possession, conversion, recipient, benefit, communication, timing, and source of knowledge. The class depends on what the actor knew about the principal conduct and its classification. Helping a person after an offense is not enough unless the aid fits this statute; conduct may instead implicate another statute, or no crime, depending on the evidence.
Separate the class ceiling, statutory minimum, and case-specific sentence
Section 12.1-32-01 currently sets ordinary ceilings of a $1,000 fine for an infraction, 30 days/$1,500 for a Class B misdemeanor, 360 days/$3,000 for a Class A misdemeanor, five years/$10,000 for a Class C felony, ten years/$20,000 for a Class B felony, and twenty years/$20,000 for a Class A felony. Those ceilings do not describe a likely result. The judgment count, offense-date law, criminal history, sentencing alternatives, presumptions and exceptions, extended-sentence eligibility, concurrent/consecutive rules, credit, restitution, forfeiture, and negotiated disposition require separate analysis.
Section 14-09-22 is different from the other alternatives here: it states a minimum of one year of imprisonment after a plea or finding of guilt and requires parental-capacity, mental-health, and anger-management assessments plus completion of ordered treatment recommendations as a probation condition. Section 14-07.7-17 adds contempt to a protection-order violation. Section 14-10-06 directs the court to consider its two alcohol/medical-assistance facts in mitigation when that theory applies. The privacy wildlife-device infraction also interacts with § 12.1-32-01’s repeat-infraction rule and complaint-notice requirement.
Target-derived offenses require two calculations. First identify the target or objective crime and the class in force on the alleged date. Then apply the attempt, facilitation, solicitation, or conspiracy formula. For attempt, a preponderance finding at sentencing that conduct did not come dangerously close can reduce specified Class B or C felony attempts. Facilitation and solicitation apply different reductions. Plea language should state the target, formula, resulting class, and factual basis rather than merely naming the inchoate offense.
Collateral effects are not universal. Child-related convictions can affect custody, employment, professional licensing, foster-care eligibility, and background screening when separate law or policy applies. Protection-order and firearm matters can affect possession, permits, employment, housing, and related proceedings under separate state or federal rules. Medical-provider allegations may affect licensing and credentialing. Immigration consequences turn on the statute, record of conviction, status, and federal law. Each consequence needs its own authority and should not be presented as automatic without it.
Preserve the original record without creating a new problem
- Dates, duties, and orders: the complaint, alleged-date law, caretaker arrangements, age proof, last contact, dispatch and medical timelines, signed orders, service, amendments, expiration, prior judgments, and complete docket.
- Communications and devices: complete messages, calls, platform exports, carrier data, device images, dispatch audio, body camera, location data, drafts, recipients, translations, corrections, and gang or election context.
- Medical and child evidence: original records, imaging, lab data, histories, differential diagnoses, impairment opinions, provider roles, consent materials, drug/dose information, child-welfare files obtained lawfully, and expert methodology.
- Transactions, property, and physical evidence: handgun forms and identification, firearm and transfer records, privacy devices and media, property boundaries, written permissions and tags, proceeds, accounts, transfers, custody logs, and forensic copies.
- Target or predicate crimes: the statute version, element chart, alleged agreement, substantial step, assistance, solicitation, overt act, predicate offense, proceeds, principal conduct, classification, and every source supporting or contradicting it.
Do not delete or alter data, contact a protected person contrary to an order, coach a child or witness, access an account without authority, move or test physical evidence, enter property, or coordinate stories. Preserve lawfully through counsel, discovery, investigators, subpoenas, and qualified experts.
Connect the charge to procedure and adjacent law
Questions about these North Dakota charges
Why are these statutes grouped on one page?
Only for navigation. They do not share one set of elements or penalties. The complaint’s citation and alleged date control which complete guide and official chapter should be reviewed.
Does every approach have a fixed class?
No. Attempt, solicitation, and conspiracy derive the class from the target or objective. Facilitation and aiding consummation use formulas tied to the underlying offense. Other statutes use age, injury, culpability, procedure, prior conviction, or theory-specific facts.
Is failure to report a missing child automatically a felony after 24 hours?
No. Section 14-09-35 requires the defined caretaker relationship, responsibility at the time, the relevant age and period, knowledge or reason to know, inability to contact or verify safety, willfulness, and failure to report within a reasonable time after the period. The older-child theory uses forty-eight hours and is a Class B misdemeanor.
Does child abuse always carry a one-year minimum?
A plea or finding of guilt under § 14-09-22 does. That rule should not be transferred to § 14-09-22.1 neglect or other child-related statutes without separate authority.
Is a protection-order violation always a felony?
No. Under current § 14-07.7-17, a first violation after service is Class A misdemeanor. Following a conviction, a second or subsequent violation under the chapter is Class C felony. Contempt is separate, and earlier conduct may be governed by predecessor law.
Does the false-handgun-information section have no penalty?
Section 62.1-03-04 states the prohibition, and § 62.1-03-06 supplies a Class A misdemeanor general penalty for a chapter violation without another specified penalty. Both provisions must be cited.
What should be checked before a plea?
The exact section and subsection, offense-date text, target or predicate crime, definitions, culpability, theory and class-setting facts, defenses and exceptions, complete source evidence, mandatory provisions, criminal history, extended-sentence exposure, restitution, forfeiture, contempt, and collateral consequences.
A lawyer’s file review of Other North Dakota Criminal Offenses
The first pass through a criminal file should be exact, not dramatic. I want the statute and subdivision, the alleged date, the conduct the State says satisfies each element, and the source for every fact that raises the degree or punishment.
Read the count as a set of propositions the State must prove
A careful review of Other North Dakota Criminal Offenses begins with N.D.C.C. §§ 12.1-06-01 through -04, 12.1-06.2-02 and -03, 12.1-08-04, 12.1-14-02, 12.1-21-06.1, 12.1-31-11 and -14, 12.1-36.1-02, 14-07.7-17, 14-09-22, 14-09-22.1, 14-09-35, 14-09-36, 14-10-06, 62.1-03-02, 62.1-03-04, 62.1-03-06, and 12.1-32-01 and the precise theory alleged in the complaint. The legal label may suggest a level of seriousness, but it cannot replace proof of the conduct, mental state, result, status, relationship, value, injury, prior event, or other circumstance the chosen provision requires.
I organize the evidence around those requirements instead of reading the police narrative as a finished story. Each proposition should lead to a source, and each source should be checked for context, reliability, and admissibility. This makes it easier to see what is genuinely disputed, what information is still missing, and which legal issue could produce a meaningful remedy.
The evidence I would ask for first
For Other North Dakota Criminal Offenses, I would not begin with a canned list of defenses. I would begin with the source file: the charging paper, every police report, uncut recordings, witness interviews, warrants and returns, device and account records, photographs with metadata, expert or laboratory material, certified prior records, court orders, and any document the prosecution relies on to prove an element or increase the classification. A police summary can identify what an officer or witness says happened, but it cannot substitute for the recording, photograph, data, or document being summarized. The same is true of a complaint. It identifies the prosecution’s theory at the start of the case; it does not prove the theory.
I put those materials on one chronology. That lets me see what was known at each decision point, which account was contemporaneous, what appeared only after people spoke with one another, and where the record is silent. It also keeps an admissibility question separate from a factual one. A fact can be disputed even if the evidence was lawfully obtained. Evidence can also be accurate yet inadmissible for a particular purpose. Those are different arguments and should not be blurred together.
Read the charging document against the offense date
The alleged date matters because statutes, penalty thresholds, definitions, sentencing rules, and published decisions change. I save the version in force on that date and read the session-law history when the current online text is different. I also check whether a later amendment was merely clarifying or made a substantive change; that is a legal question, not an assumption. The same discipline applies to prior convictions and administrative events. A prior must fit the definition the charged statute actually uses, fall within any stated lookback period, and be proved by a reliable record.
I then compare the formal count with the probable-cause narrative and the discovery. If the prosecution’s theory shifts, I want the amended pleading and enough detail to prepare. If several factual alternatives are alleged, I identify whether they are separate elements, alternative means, enhancement facts, or merely evidentiary details. That distinction affects notice, motions, jury instructions, unanimity arguments, and how a verdict form should be read.
Separate an evidentiary weakness from a suppression issue
Not every troubling fact produces a motion to suppress. Suppression ordinarily requires a constitutional, statutory, or rule-based violation with a remedy that reaches the evidence at issue. A weak identification, an incomplete investigation, or a witness inconsistency may be powerful at trial without making evidence inadmissible. By contrast, a stop, search, interrogation, identification procedure, warrant, or test can raise a legal issue even when the resulting evidence appears incriminating. I analyze both tracks and do not promise dismissal simply because one problem exists.
For a search issue, I reconstruct what officers knew before each intrusion and what authority they claimed. For a statement, I examine custody, questioning, warnings, voluntariness, recording, and the complete context. For scientific or technical evidence, I request the method, underlying data, quality-control material, uncertainty information, and chain of custody. For hearsay or confrontation questions, I identify the actual statement, its purpose, the declarant, and the proposed foundation. Specificity matters; “the evidence is bad” is not a motion.
Prepare negotiation and trial at the same time
A plea decision should be compared with the case the State could present at trial, not with the complaint’s maximum penalty in isolation. I want to know the strongest admissible proof, the weakest required element, the realistic motion practice, the likely instructions, and the consequences of every proposed disposition. That includes custody, probation, treatment, restitution, driving, firearm restrictions, registration, employment or licensing, immigration consultation, family-court effects, and record consequences when they are actually triggered. I avoid telling a client that every collateral consequence applies to every conviction.
Trial preparation gives negotiation its credibility. Witness interviews, exhibit review, motions in limine, expert consultation, demonstrative evidence, jury instructions, and a clean theory of the case force both sides to confront what can be proved. Negotiation can continue while that work is underway. The two tracks are not opposites.
A case-law point worth keeping in its proper place
Appellate decisions matter, but a quotation should not be detached from the issue the court was deciding. In State v. Hartson, 2024 ND 78, ¶ 26, the North Dakota Supreme Court explained that, on a sufficiency challenge, “we do not weigh conflicting evidence, or judge the credibility of witnesses.” That is an appellate-review rule, not a reduction of the State’s burden at trial. At trial, the prosecution still must prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt. I cite the case for the point it actually decided and then return to the charged statute, the instructions, and the admissible evidence in the present file.
What I would want you to understand before choosing an outcome
You should be able to identify the exact charge, the facts that set its level, the disputed elements, the evidence that matters most, the motions that have a legal basis, the realistic trial issues, and the concrete effect of each proposed resolution. If an answer depends on a missing report, recording, expert opinion, or certified record, I will say so. An honest answer about what remains unknown is more useful than a confident guess.