IVANHOE — Criminal charges have been dismissed against an Ivanhoe man who was convicted of criminal sexual conduct in 2023, Lincoln County District Court records said. The dismissal comes after the Minnesota Court of Appeals overturned a conviction for Aren Franc Hatton, and sent the case back to Lincoln County for a new trial.

Last year, the state Court of Appeals filed an opinion reversing Hatton’s convictions for kidnapping and third degree criminal sexual conduct. In the opinion, the court found there was insufficient evidence to support the kidnapping conviction, and that Hatton’s conviction for criminal sexual conduct had been influenced by unfairly prejudicial evidence.

Hatton, 45, was charged with four counts of criminal sexual conduct and one count of kidnapping in 2023. The case went to a jury trial in Lincoln County in July 2023.

During the trial, the alleged victim in the case testified that she was previously in a relationship with Hatton, and had asked Hatton to come over to snowblow her driveway, appeals court documents said. The woman testified that at her home in Ivanhoe, Hatton confined her in a bedroom and assaulted her. A jury found Hatton guilty of third degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping. He was sentenced to 180 months in prison.

However, the appeals court’s opinion found there wasn’t enough evidence to support Hatton’s kidnapping conviction, and overturned it. The appeals court’s opinion also said some of the evidence admitted in Hatton’s case – a syringe found at Hatton’s home that field-tested positive for methamphetamine – was unfairly prejudicial, and was not related to the criminal sexual conduct charges. The opinion said there was “a reasonable probability” that the evidence of the syringe significantly affected the verdict in Hatton’s case.

The appeals court ordered that Hatton’s conviction for third degree criminal sexual conduct be reversed, and that he receive a new trial for criminal sexual conduct.

New trial dates for the criminal sexual conduct charges were originally set for January 2026 in Lincoln County. Those dates were later moved to April. Then on April 20, documents filed in Lincoln County District Court said the Lincoln County Attorney’s office was dismissing the charges “in the interest of justice.”

Hatton is currently facing unrelated criminal charges in Redwood County of drug possession, DWI, fleeing police in a vehicle and property damage.