A divided Iowa Supreme Court has reset the way criminals are charged by redefining when a person is formally arrested.

The court ruled Thursday in cases involving three Waterloo men accused of drugging and raping two 15-year-old girls in 2012. The men were not charged until more than a year later after DNA samples returned from testing labs connecting them to the case.

The Iowa Court of Appeals in 2015 ordered charges dropped because the men weren't charged within 45 days after they were questioned, which the court considered their arrest date.

The Supreme Court Thursday reverses that saying an arrest doesn't occur for the purposes of a speedy indictment until a suspect appears before a magistrate judge and not simply when someone is physically detained but later released.

The decision means Deantay Williams, Taevon Washington and Cordarrel Smith will go to trial on sexual assault and kidnapping charges.