Minnesota Statutes

Minn. Stat. § 609.27 (2026)

Coercion

✓ current as of May 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MN-REVrevisor.mn.gov (official) Justiaon Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Subdivision 1.Acts constituting.

Whoever orally or in writing makes any of the following threats and thereby causes another against the other's will to do any act or forbear doing a lawful act is guilty of coercion and may be sentenced as provided in subdivision 2:

(1) a threat to unlawfully inflict bodily harm upon, or hold in confinement, the person threatened or another, when robbery or attempt to rob is not committed thereby; or

(2) a threat to unlawfully inflict damage to the property of the person threatened or another; or

(3) a threat to unlawfully injure a trade, business, profession, or calling; or

(4) a threat to expose a secret or deformity, publish a defamatory statement, or otherwise to expose any person to disgrace or ridicule; or

(5) a threat to make or cause to be made a criminal charge, whether true or false; provided, that a warning of the consequences of a future violation of law given in good faith by a peace officer or prosecuting attorney to any person shall not be deemed a threat for the purposes of this section; or

(6) a threat to commit a violation under section 617.261.

[See Note.]

Subd. 2.Sentence.

Whoever violates subdivision 1 may be sentenced as follows:

(1) to imprisonment for not more than 90 days or to payment of a fine of not more than $1,000, or both if neither the pecuniary gain received by the violator nor the loss suffered by the person threatened or another as a result of the threat exceeds $300, or the benefits received or harm sustained are not susceptible of pecuniary measurement; or

(2) to imprisonment for not more than five years or to payment of a fine of not more than $10,000, or both, if such pecuniary gain or loss is more than $300 but less than $2,500; or

(3) to imprisonment for not more than ten years or to payment of a fine of not more than $20,000, or both, if such pecuniary gain or loss is $2,500, or more.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 8 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1969–2023 · leading case: State v. Trong Kim Huynh, 519 N.W.2d 191 (Minn. 1994).
State v. Trong Kim Huynh, 519 N.W.2d 191 (Minn. 1994). · cites it 8× “Defendant Huynh was convicted of five counts of coercion under Minn.Stat. § 609.27, subd. 1(1) (1992) [1] and one count of racketeering under Minn.”
Am. Comput. Trust Leasing v. Jack Farrell Implement Co., 763 F. Supp. 1473 (D. Minnesota 1991). · cites it 4× “§ 1343 ) in connection with representations allegedly made to Boerboom and Farrell about their computer systems; (2) IH’s contract with ADP and specifically ADP’s payment of royalties to IH; and (3) the alleged deactivation of software which Boerboom and Farrell claim violates…”
State v. Trong Kim Huynh, 504 N.W.2d 477 (Minn. Ct. App. 1993). · cites it 6× “A jury convicted Trong Kim Huynh (Huynh) of five counts of coercion in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.27, subds. *480 1(2), 2(2) (1990) and one count of racketeering in violation of Minn.”
State v. Jumping Eagle, 620 N.W.2d 42 (Minn. 2000). · cites it 2× “Garcia’s plea petition made no mention of the conditional-release term, nor was it mentioned in any hearings on his case before or at the time of sentencing.”
United States v. Nardello, 393 U.S. 286 (1969). “§ 21-529 (1964); Minnesota calls it coercion, Minn. Stat. § 609.27 (1967); and Wisconsin believes that it should be classified under threats, Wis.”
Li v. New Asia Chinese Restaurant Wan Da Inc (D. Minnesota 2023). · cites it 8× “See Minn. Stat. § 609.27 , subdiv. 1(3). However, criminal statutes do not “give rise to a civil cause of action unless the statute expressly or by clear implication so provides.”
Clancy v. Vacationaire Estates, Inc. (D. Minnesota 2019). · cites it 2× “” Minn. Stat. § 609.27 . Racketeering also includes violations of the Hobbs Act, which prohibits extortion.”
Hillmeyer v. Watz, 415 N.W.2d 89 (Minn. Ct. App. 1987). · cites it 4× “We find that the language used in the second letter, coupled with the misstatement, comes uncomfortably close to violating Minn.Stat. § 609.27 subd. 1(5) (1986). 1 The attorney was a trained professional dealing with an unrepresented person; this created a significant disparity…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.