Jane Doe 136 v. Ralph Liebsch

For almost 40 years we have allowed Minnesota defendants to plead guilty to .crimes while they simultaneously’ deny their guilt — by what we know as Alford pleas. Whatever the wisdom of that judicial policy, it has been black-letter law that an Alford plea may be used for the samé *884purposes as a conventional guilty plea. But today, in a subsequent civil suit based on the same incident of alleged criminal sexual conduct, the court departs from this rule of law, prompting my respectful dissent. Because the district court fundamentally erred on the legal effect of an Alford plea, thereby keeping…