Expungement & Sealing
- Juvenile Cases - Expungement
- Only juvenile cases are eligible for expungement. Expungement happens by order of the Municipal Court if the defendant was a juvenile at the time of the commission of the alleged offenses, the case was dismissed or closed AND there are no pending case(s) before the Municipal Court.
- Expunging records means that you may lawfully assert that you have no juvenile delinquency record related to the case and the records do not exist. You may lawfully deny ever being arrested, charged, convicted or sentenced in the expunged matter.
- If the Municipal Prosecutor does not object to the expungement, the Court will automatically expunge your records 42 days after either a dismissal or full compliance with your sentence.
- If the Prosecutor objects, the Court will set the case for a hearing and the Court will decide if your records should be expunged. At the hearing, the Court will determine whether or not you have been:
- rehabilitated to the satisfaction of the Court and
- if the expungement is in your best interest and the best interest of the community.
- Adult Cases - Sealing
- Traffic offenses or offenses concerning the holder of a commercial driver's license, or the operator of a commercial motor vehicle are not eligible for sealing.
- If your case was dismissed, you were acquitted at trial, or you successfully completed a deferred judgment, the Municipal Court will enter an order sealing no later than twenty-eight (28) days after the date of the final disposition.
- You may petition the municipal court to seal conviction records, except basic identifying information, pertaining to the defendant for a Municipal violation.
- You may file a Petition if:
- The Petition is filed three (3) or more years after the date of final disposition of all criminal proceedings against you or your release from supervision concerning a criminal conviction, whichever is later; AND
- You have not been charged or convicted of a felony, misdemeanor, or misdemeanor traffic offense in the three (3) or more years since the date of the final disposition of all criminal proceedings against you or the date of your release of supervision. OR
- If you were convicted of a single offense that was not a felony and did not involve domestic violence, unlawful sexual behavior, or child abuse; you may file a petition if it has been ten (10) or more years after the date of the final disposition of all criminal proceedings against the defendant for the subsequent criminal case or ten (10) years after the date of the defendant's release from supervision for the subsequent criminal case, whichever is later; AND
- You have not been convicted of a felony, misdemeanor, or misdemeanor traffic offense since the date of the final disposition of all criminal proceedings; AND
- The conviction sought to be sealed is not a municipal violation in which the underlying factual basis involves domestic violence.