Under Rule 4 of the Minnesota Rules of Criminal Procedure, upon an arrest, a person can be held in custody for no more than 36 hours — excluding the day of arrest, legal holidays, and Sundays. Typically, if a person gets arrested on a Wednesday, he or she needs to be in front of a judge and charged by Friday at noon, or released. However, Thanksgiving is a legal holiday, and so is the Friday after Thanksgiving. This means that if a person is arrested on Wednesday, that day (day of arrest), Thursday (legal holiday), Friday (legal holiday) and Sunday do not count toward the 36 hours. 24 of the hours are used up on Saturday, but the last 12 hours do not expire until noon on Monday. Because of the two legal holidays, a person arrested on Wednesday (or Thursday or Friday, for that matter) will sit in custody until Monday morning before seeing a judge.
Our team at BKD wishes everyone a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving!