MN Coercion Law Struck Down in Olmsted County Case

St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News) - The Minnesota Supreme Court has upheld lower court rulings that struck down a state criminal law as unconstitutional in an Olmsted County case.

The decision handed down Wednesday backs up earlier rulings by the Minnesota Court of Appeals and an Olmsted County judge who found the statute used to charge 45-year-old John Jorgenson with attempted coercion is overly broad and violates the First Amendment free speech protections. Those rulings found the law used to prosecute the Sergeant man for allegedly threatening to release a video recording of a Claremont woman talking about smoking marijuana also criminalizes a wide range of protected speech.

Jorgenson was accused of demanding the woman pay him $25,000 if she wished to stop him from releasing the video. She and Jorgenson had been involved in a relationship and were living together but she had ended the relationship and was seeking to evict him when the incident occurred two years ago.

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