8.29 Misjoinder of offenses

Sometimes prosecutors charge someone with more than one crime in the same document, like one indictment or citation covering multiple charges. But there are rules about which charges can legally be grouped together in one case.

If the charges in a single document don't meet the requirements for being combined, the court can step in. The judge can make the prosecutor pick just one of the charges to move forward with in that case. The other charges would need to be handled separately, if they're pursued at all.

This protects the defendant from facing improperly combined charges that don't belong together in the same case. It keeps the process fair by making sure each charge is handled the way the law requires.