§ 140B.112.Abatement of Action

The provision that gives the coordination sections their force, and it admits of no argument.

Where the local prosecutor determines that an action under this chapter would interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation or prosecution, having notified the attorney general of that matter under the preceding section, the prosecutor may request, in writing, that the attorney general abate the action. On receipt of this request, the attorney general shall abate the action.

The verb is "shall". No weighing, no judicial ruling, no route to contest it.

Two conditions bound the power, and both are procedural. The prosecutor must have given the written notification of the criminal matter first, and the abatement request must itself be in writing. Neither goes to the merits of the determination.

Set beside the consent requirement, the picture is clear. A local prosecutor can stop the attorney general from filing the property remedies at all, and can stop an action already filed. Within a county, the elected prosecutor controls this chapter’s civil enforcement.

The reasoning behind that arrangement is sound even where the effect looks lopsided. Racketeering prosecutions are built over long periods on confidential sources and grand jury material. Only the prosecutor knows what a civil filing would expose, and explaining it to the attorney general would compound the risk.

Abatement holds the case rather than ending it. The action is suspended, and the limitations section supplies the room — both a five-year period and a tolling rule that suspends the clock during the criminal proceeding and adds two years after it ends.