State v. Simon

AMDAHL, Chief Justice.

In State v. Nordstrom, 331 N.W.2d 901 (Minn.1983), we held in part that a prior misdemeanor DWI conviction based on an uncounseled guilty plea cannot be used to convert a subsequent DWI offense into a gross misdemeanor under Minn.Stat. § 169.121, subd. 3 (1982), absent a valid waiver of counsel on the record of the prior proceeding. In Nordstrom there was no record and the guilty plea was uncoun-seled. 1 Our decision was based on Baldasar v. Illinois, 446 U.S. 222, 100 S.Ct. 1585, 64 L.Ed.2d 169 (1980), a case that forbade use of a prior uncounseled misdemeanor…