Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest and crime counts are the ones each agency reported to the FBI, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site between September 23, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
Cottonwood County, Minnesota, has about 11,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Minnesota the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the court administrator; the statewide criminal history kept by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is open to anyone who asks. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Cottonwood County is kept and how it is seen.
This guide covers the court file, the statewide record, local arrest records, the crimes behind the records, the prosecutor, sex offender registry, records requests and common questions.
Related guides: Cottonwood County public records, Cottonwood County arrest records, Cottonwood County warrants, Cottonwood County inmate search, Cottonwood County court records, Minnesota arrest records and Minnesota inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Cottonwood County District Court
In Minnesota the public criminal record is the court file. Criminal cases from Cottonwood County are heard by the Cottonwood County District Court, which hears every civil, criminal, family, probate and juvenile case, and the file of each case is kept by the court administrator.
For Cottonwood County, SearchSystems opened and checked the court records page for the county at mncourts.gov/find-courts/cottonwood (page title: Cottonwood County District Court), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
Statewide, Minnesota Court Records Online is the Minnesota Judicial Branch's free statewide case search.
The Minnesota Criminal History and Your Own Copy
Minnesota is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the public criminal history search online is free and shows 15 years of convictions, through the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The result is the repository record, what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it.
To see your own record, the route is a request to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The state page SearchSystems verified for it is at dps.mn.gov/divisions/bca/bca-divisions/criminal-justice-information....
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Cottonwood County
The Cottonwood County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Windom, Mountain Lake and Westbrook keep the arrest records in Cottonwood County: the report and the booking record of each arrest stay with the agency that made it, separate from the court file and from the state repository.
Together, the four agencies in Cottonwood County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 124 arrests to the FBI that year; how each case ended is in the court file, not in the arresting agency's.
The agencies and their counts, year by year, are in Cottonwood County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Cottonwood County in 2025
The four agencies in Cottonwood County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 12 violent and 49 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 61 crimes in 2025 against 63 in 2024. Each reported crime is a report on file with the agency that took it, and each arrest that follows is the start of a criminal record.
The full crime section, agency by agency, is on the Cottonwood County public records guide.
The County Attorney for Cottonwood County
The County Attorney decides which arrests in Cottonwood County become charges and files them in the Cottonwood County District Court; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at cottonwoodcountymn.gov/departments/administrative/county_attorney/i... (page title: Welcome to Cottonwood County, MN), phone 507-831-5040, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Cottonwood County
Registered sex offenders living in Cottonwood County are listed on the Minnesota Predatory Offender Registry, run by the Minnesota Department of Corrections at mn.gov. Only Level 3 offenders are listed online.
Registration itself is done in person with the local agency where the registrant lives: the sheriff's office, or the city police in a city with its own department.
Asking an Agency in Cottonwood County for a Record
An arrest report, a booking record or a local criminal history letter comes from the agency that holds it, not from the court.
Under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act a county office must answer a request promptly, within a reasonable time, and it may charge copying, and staff time for requests over 100 pages.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Cottonwood County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension: the public criminal history search online is free and shows 15 years of convictions. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.
Can I search Cottonwood County criminal cases online?
Minnesota Court Records Online is the Minnesota Judicial Branch's free statewide case search.
How do I get my own Minnesota criminal history?
Through a request to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Who prosecutes crimes in Cottonwood County?
The County Attorney, reached at 507-831-5040, which files its cases in the Cottonwood County District Court.
Is this the official Cottonwood County website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.