The misdemeanor charge against Gerald Groenewold, director of UND's Energy and Environmental Research Center, has been deferred, according to court records.
If Groenewold faces no more charges over the next year, the charge will be dismissed and will be, essentially, erased from his record.
Groenewold was charged with disorderly conduct in August after he allegedly threatened Manvel, N.D., volunteer firefighters attempting to put out a controlled grass fire on his property just north of Grand Forks in April.
Groenewold allegedly became upset when firefighters arrived on his property. Manvel Fire Chief Steve Schumer said Groenewold threatened the crew. He said Groenewold said that if they did not leave he was "going to get a gun."
Groenewold shook a rake at one of the firefighters, according to the criminal complaint. Groenewold has denied that a confrontation occurred.
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This week, an order deferring prosecution of the case was filed in Grand Forks District Court.
It's a rare order, according to Grand Forks defense attorney Alex Reichert. He's seen it happen in Minnesota courts a couple of times, but has never seen it in a North Dakota district court.
It's somewhat similar to a deferred imposition of sentence, where a person will enter a guilty plea to a charge and the sentence is deferred for a set time period. Once that time period has expired, a records check is done and if there are no further charges in that time frame, the original charge is dismissed, according to Reichert.
"The difference and the advantage here is that a person never has to enter a guilty plea," Reichert said.
It's significant because with a deferred prosecution and subsequent dismissal of charges, if that's the case here, it would completely erase the charge from a person's record, according to Reichert.
"With a deferred imposition of sentence, if someone ever asks you if you have ever pled guilty to a crime, you have to say yes. Technically, during that time period set by the court, you are convicted of a crime, with deferred sentences," he said.
Deferred prosecution will allow a defendant "to honestly say I have never been convicted, I have never pleaded guilty to a crime, I have never been found guilty in a court," he said.
And if a person has a deferred sentence and they commit another offense during the time set by the court, that sentence can be applied. In a deferred prosecution, if the defendant faces another charge, "he can still fight (the original) case as if it was just filed yesterday," Reichert said.
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Although it's a rare order, it's something anyone charged with a crime could receive, Reichert said.
"You would find it very difficult to convince the prosecution to do that," he said. "I've tried before. It's literally so rare I almost never ask for them because I know the prosecution is going to say 'no.'"
