Domestic Abuse No Contact Orders (DANCO) in Minnesota

What a DANCO Is (Minn. Stat. § 629.75)

A Domestic Abuse No Contact Order is a court order in a criminal (or juvenile delinquency) case that prohibits the defendant from having contact with the alleged victim — and it almost always extends to any children in the home. It can be issued for domestic abuse, for harassment or stalking against a family or household member, or in connection with violating an OFP or a prior DANCO.

Two features catch many people off guard:

• It is frequently issued at the first appearance, without input from the alleged victim — sometimes even over the victim's objection.
• It is independent of any no-contact condition of release or probation. You can be subject to a DANCO and a release condition and an OFP at the same time, each enforceable on its own.

Pretrial vs. Probationary

A DANCO comes in two forms: a pretrial DANCO, issued before the case is resolved (commonly as a release condition), and a postconviction probationary DANCO, imposed as part of a sentence. Either way, it controls contact while it's in effect.

How a DANCO Differs From an OFP or HRO

People often confuse these. A DANCO is issued by the criminal court inside a criminal case. An OFP (Order for Protection) and an HRO (Harassment Restraining Order) are civil orders obtained by the petitioner in a separate civil proceeding. They can overlap — and a single situation can involve a DANCO and an OFP at once — but they come from different cases with different rules. (See our pages on OFPs and HROs.)

What Counts as a Violation

"Contact" is read broadly. It can include phone calls, texts, emails, social media, letters, showing up at a home, work, or school, and contact through a third party. Because a DANCO often forbids all contact, even seemingly innocent or victim-initiated contact can lead to a violation charge. A key trap: the alleged victim reaching out to you does not make contact lawful — responding can still be a violation.

Penalties for Violating a DANCO

A DANCO violation is charged separately from the underlying case, and the level escalates with history:

• Misdemeanor for a first violation — up to 90 days and a $1,000 fine.
• Gross misdemeanor if committed within 10 years of a prior qualified domestic-violence-related offense — with a mandatory minimum of 10 days and required programming, which the court must impose and execute.
• Felony if the violation involved a dangerous weapon or the person has two or more prior qualifying convictions — up to 5 years and a $10,000 fine.

This 10-year lookback is the domestic-violence-offense enhancement window under Minn. Stat. § 629.75. It is separate from Minnesota's DWI lookback rules.

Police must arrest, without a warrant, a person they have probable cause to believe violated a DANCO — even if the violation didn't happen in the officer's presence.

What this means for you: a DANCO can disrupt your housing and family life immediately, and a single misstep — even answering a text from the protected person — can create a brand-new criminal charge. If a DANCO is too broad or is causing real hardship (for example, separating you from your kids), there are ways to ask the court to modify it, but you must go through the court rather than ignore the order.

Key Terms

• DANCO: A criminal-court no-contact order in a domestic case (Minn. Stat. § 629.75).
• QDVRO: "Qualified domestic violence-related offense" — prior offenses that escalate a violation's severity.
• Pretrial vs. probationary DANCO: Issued before resolution vs. as part of a sentence.
• Third-party contact: Contact through someone else, which can still violate the order.