under MN dui laws can a person be charged for dui if the car is parked

As with many legal issues, the answer is: It depends. In general, the police can charge you with any crime they want, at any time. They could charge you with shooting President JFK, if they wanted to. So that's not the real issue.

The real question is can they make the charges stick? The answer to that is possibly, but it depends on a number of factors.

Your situation presents three obvious issues: 1) Can they prove you were operating or in physical control of your vehicle? 2) Did it happen in a public place? 3) Can they prove that you were intoxicated?

Most states have laws which take a very expansive approach to these two issues. In other words, thanks primarily to pressure from MADD, state laws have been written to make it easier for prosecutors to prove their case. A person may be considered "operating" or in physical control of a vehicle if they are merely sitting in the vehicle with the keys in the ignition, sometimes even if the engine is off. This may be the situation which you face.

"Public place" is generally defined so broadly that it includes practically any area to which the public has access. Since the public could probably drive into your driveway and park, or even just to turn around, it can be argued that the public has at least limited access to the location.

Intoxication, of course, is an issue in every DUI / DWI.

"Physical control," "public place," and "intoxicated" are questions of fact to be determined by the judge or jury based upon all of the circumstances of the case. This means, in effect, a judge or jury could find you guilty, or not guilty, depending upon how they view the evidence. A case with all of those issues would most likely be worth contesting in court.

You might be suprised how often people have been arrested while asleep in their cars. I had three such jury trials last year alone!

Police often charge people with DWI caught sleeping in their cars in Minnesota. Many other states do not, since they wish to encourage drivers to stop driving once they realize they may be impaired. In Minnesota, drivers aware of this aspect of the law often will keep going home, since their chance of getting caught is much greater if they stop and sleep in their car. There was a case years ago where a person was charged with DWI for sleeping in the car in the home's driveway after an argument with his wife, and he won because the court agreed the car was a mere shelter, and he was home, not intending to drive.

FFI: http://www.liberty-lawyer.com/dwiduidrivingrelated.html

When interviewing a DUI defense lawyer ask the following questions:

What percentage of your annual caseload is relegated to defending DUI?
How many DUI jury trials did you have in the past 12 months?
Can you provide a list of DUI training seminars or conferences attended in the past 2 to 5 years?
What percentage of your clients enter a plea of guilty to the crime charged?
Have you or any members of your firm written articles or books related to defending DUIs?
How many lawyers are in the firm, and are they all DUI defense attorneys? If so, will they collaborate with their colleagues about your DUI case?
How many years have you defended DUI cases?

I am a Minn prosecutor. Yes, you can be charged with DWI, even while sleeping in your own car. It does not matter if you are in your driveway or not, in Minn, you can get a DWI anywhere in the state. It also does not matter if you are intoxicated, we use the standard of "impaired" and have a per se limit of 0.08 AC. The factors that the officer and prosecutor will need to consider include if you were in fact in physical control of your vehicle. Where were the keys? Was the vehicle operable? Could you wake up, start it up and drive off at any time? If so, then the case for the State is fairly strong.