2025 Session Last amended: 2016 session

§ 609.27 — Coercion

Plain-Language Summary

This law makes it a crime to force someone to do something (or stop doing something) by making threats. Threats can include harm to a person, damage to property, hurting someone's business, or exposing embarrassing information. The punishment depends on how much money was gained or lost.

609.27 COERCION.

Subdivision 1.Acts constituting.

Whoever orally or in writing makes any of the following threats and thereby causes another against the other’s will to do any act or forbear doing a lawful act is guilty of coercion and may be sentenced as provided in subdivision 2:

(1) a threat to unlawfully inflict bodily harm upon, or hold in confinement, the person threatened or another, when robbery or attempt to rob is not committed thereby; or

(2) a threat to unlawfully inflict damage to the property of the person threatened or another; or

(3) a threat to unlawfully injure a trade, business, profession, or calling; or

(4) a threat to expose a secret or deformity, publish a defamatory statement, or otherwise to expose any person to disgrace or ridicule; or

(5) a threat to make or cause to be made a criminal charge, whether true or false; provided, that a warning of the consequences of a future violation of law given in good faith by a peace officer or prosecuting attorney to any person shall not be deemed a threat for the purposes of this section; or

(6) a threat to commit a violation under section 617.261.

[See Note.] §

Subd. 2.Sentence.

Whoever violates subdivision 1 may be sentenced as follows:

(1) to imprisonment for not more than 90 days or to payment of a fine of not more than $1,000, or both if neither the pecuniary gain received by the violator nor the loss suffered by the person threatened or another as a result of the threat exceeds $300, or the benefits received or harm sustained are not susceptible of pecuniary measurement; or

(2) to imprisonment for not more than five years or to payment of a fine of not more than $10,000, or both, if such pecuniary gain or loss is more than $300 but less than $2,500; or

(3) to imprisonment for not more than ten years or to payment of a fine of not more than $20,000, or both, if such pecuniary gain or loss is $2,500, or more.

History:

1963 c 753 art 1 s 609.27; 1971 c 23 s 40; 1977 c 355 s 7; 1983 c 359 s 87; 1984 c 628 art 3 s 11; 1986 c 444; 2004 c 228 art 1 s 72; 2016 c 126 s 4

NOTE: Subdivision 1, clause (4), was found to violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as facially overbroad in State v. Jorgenson, 946 N.W.2d 596 (Minn. 2020).

History: History: 1963 c 753 art 1 s 609.27; 1971 c 23 s 40; 1977 c 355 s 7; 1983 c 359 s 87; 1984 c 628 art 3 s 11; 1986 c 444; 2004 c 228 art 1 s 72; 2016 c 126 s 4

Practical Notes

When this applies: When someone uses threats to force another person to act against their will, including threats of violence, property damage, business harm, or exposure of secrets. Who this affects: Anyone who makes coercive threats and anyone who is a victim of such threats. Key points: Coercion is a crime with escalating penalties — up to 90 days in jail for minor cases, up to 10 years for cases involving $2,500 or more in gain or loss. Note that subdivision 1, clause (4), regarding threats to expose secrets or cause disgrace, was struck down as unconstitutional by the Minnesota Supreme Court in State v. Jorgenson (2020). A good-faith warning by a peace officer or prosecutor about future law violations is not coercion.

Source: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes