Perjury and False Reports to Police in Minnesota

Perjury (Minn. Stat. § 609.48)

Perjury is a felony: making "a false material statement not believing it to be true" in a proceeding or document where an oath or affirmation is required or authorized by law.

The Elements the State Must Prove

For a perjury conviction, the statement must be:

• False — actually untrue. It is not perjury to tell the truth while believing it to be false.
• Not believed to be true — the speaker knew it was false when made.
• Under oath — and an oath must actually have been given.
• In a proceeding where the oath was required or authorized.
• Material — relevant to the proceeding (interpreted broadly, including matters going to credibility).

Failing to prove any one of these beyond a reasonable doubt requires acquittal. Notably, materiality doesn't require proof that the statement actually affected the outcome, was admissible, or that the speaker knew it was material.

Defenses to Perjury

• Retraction: It's a defense if the speaker retracts or corrects the false statement — the law encourages correcting the record.
• No valid oath: If no proper oath was given, or it wasn't authorized by law, there's no perjury (even if the statement was false). For example, signing a public-defender application in front of a deputy has been held not to be a sufficiently formal oath.
• Belief in truth: If the speaker genuinely believed the statement when made, it isn't perjury.

Perjury convictions are felonies, with a more severe penalty if the false statement is made in a felony trial.

What this means for you: Perjury is hard to prove and rarely charged. The state must show you knew the statement was false when you made it — not that you were mistaken, confused, or simply remembered things differently.

Falsely Reporting a Crime / False Information to Police (Minn. Stat. § 609.505)

Even without an oath, Minnesota makes it a crime to feed false information into the justice system. Key offenses:

• Falsely reporting a crime to police, or knowingly giving false information about others to an on-duty officer. A second or later offense is a gross misdemeanor.
• Giving a fictitious name, false date of birth, or fraudulently altered ID to an officer during a lawful stop or arrest, with intent to obstruct justice. This becomes a gross misdemeanor if the name or birthdate given belongs to another real person.
• Giving a false name or birthdate to a court official in a criminal proceeding, with intent to obstruct justice — also a gross misdemeanor if it's another person's identity.
• Falsely reporting police misconduct — but Minnesota courts have held this provision is unconstitutionally overbroad unless limited to defamatory statements.
• False emergency calls / false fire alarms — making an emergency call knowing no emergency exists, or giving a false fire alarm.

What this means for you: The most common version of this charge — giving a false name to avoid an outstanding warrant — turns on intent to obstruct justice. And giving someone else's real identifying information is treated more seriously than making one up.

Key Terms

• Perjury: A knowingly false, material statement under a valid oath.
• Materiality: Relevance to the proceeding; required for perjury, interpreted broadly.
• Retraction: Correcting a false statement, which can be a defense to perjury.
• False information to police: Falsely reporting a crime, or giving a false name or ID with intent to obstruct justice.