So I've been found not guilty on four of my misdamenors in 2012 & just today I've found out that I was denied on all four of my guilty verdicts to be expunged because of my past record. I'm not paying my lawyer another cent since I've already dished out enough money to her to get try to get it expunged. She tells me I need to reopen & refile the case. Does anyone have any idea on how to do that?

What were you denied?

Do you have 4 not guilty and 4 guilty?

Be more clear.

I was found "not guilty" on all four misd. charges so I tried to get it expunged on my record & today I was denied because of my past record. There was only a total of four charges and I went to court and they were found "not guilty" but yet i was denied. How do I refile or reopen the case?

be more precise Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What were you denied?
>
> Do you have 4 not guilty and 4 guilty?
>
> Be more clear.



Is there any other information you need?

if you were NOT guilty then what do you want expunged? The arrest? There's a way to do that.

not guilty Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> if you were NOT guilty then what do you want
> expunged? The arrest? There's a way to do that.


yes the charge which stays on everyone's record even if the verdict was "not guilty" I want them off so employers can't see them. You can't ever expunge a "guilty verdict" because than everyone would do it and have clean record if you can afford it. This process is expensive and I don't want to give my lawyer another cent. How do I refile or reopen an expungement case if i was previously denied? all four charges i'm expunging are "not guilty".

You want the arrest/charges expunged. That's different. And yes, you CAN get guilty expunged, but it is tricky.

Did you get a real not guilty, or a deferred adjudication?

The answers are on this guy's blog, it is pretty simple, you can do it yourself:

http://homillerlaw.typepad.com/criminaltrafficlaw/2006/05/starting_with_a.html

aha I see Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You want the arrest/charges expunged. That's
> different. And yes, you CAN get guilty expunged,
> but it is tricky.
>
> Did you get a real not guilty, or a deferred
> adjudication?
>
> The answers are on this guy's blog, it is pretty
> simple, you can do it yourself:
>
> http://homillerlaw.typepad.com/criminaltrafficlaw/
> 2006/05/starting_with_a.html

you seem to know what you talking about......

the results of all four of my arrest/charges were (2) nolle prosequi, (1) not guilty & (1) dismissed. I was told you wern't able to expunge guilty verdicts. what are your thoughts?

The easiest way to get guilty expunged is via a pardon from the governor.

But, your case…you have no guilty verdicts, so you should be able to get all of this expunged. The only thing that will stick around after that is the arrest record on this website (ironically). You have to get kind of nasty to get that removed.

But that blog I sent you tells you what you need.

The Commonwealth is very stingy with expungements of "mere" arrest records.

Here's the relevant statute:

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+19.2-392.2

The key is "otherwise dismissed". Deferred adjudications which result in dismissal do not count. From what you say it sounds like your cases were dismissed outright. You should, in theory, be able to petition the circuit court that adjudicated the case.

Failing that, your recourse is to petition the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

http://www.commonwealth.virginia.gov/JudicialSystem/Clemency/pardons.cfm

The law on expungement is §19.2-392.2. http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+19.2-392.2

This is how I understand your facts. You caught four misdemeanor charges, were found not guilty on one, had one dismissed, and the other were two nolle prossed. However, when you filed to have the records expunged, the court denied your petition because you already have other criminal convictions unrelated to the four misdemeanor charges.

In order to have your record expunged, the court has to find that the continued existence and possible dissemination of the information constitutes a manifest injustice to you. Since you already had criminal convictions for other offenses, the court is wholly within its rights to deny your petition. From §19.2-392.2. F.:

After receiving the criminal history record information from the CCRE, the court shall conduct a hearing on the petition. If the court finds that the continued existence and possible dissemination of information relating to the arrest of the petitioner causes or may cause circumstances which constitute a manifest injustice to the petitioner, it shall enter an order requiring the expungement of the police and court records, including electronic records, relating to the charge. Otherwise, it shall deny the petition. However, if the petitioner has no prior criminal record and the arrest was for a misdemeanor violation, the petitioner shall be entitled, in the absence of good cause shown to the contrary by the Commonwealth, to expungement of the police and court records relating to the charge, and the court shall enter an order of expungement.

Your next step is to appeal the decision of the court to the next higher court. Since your case was heard before the Circuit Court, this court is the Court of Appeals of Virgina.

Your petition must include a reason why, despite your previous criminal convictions, the continued existence of the record constitutes a manifest injustice and how the court that denied your petition was in error. This means reading case law to see how §19.2-392.2. has been applied to other people in your position before and citing those cases in your petition.

The truth is that you really, really don't want to go before the Court of Appeals without experienced and qualified counsel. If you don't want to pay a lawyer to handle this, it's pretty much the end of the road.

Disclaimer: This post does not constitute legal advice.

Woah

Is this really FFU? There are a few intelligent posts in this thread. Has this board been hacked?

Leagle Eagel. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The law on expungement is §19.2-392.2.
> http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+co
> d+19.2-392.2
>
> This is how I understand your facts. You caught
> four misdemeanor charges, were found not guilty on
> one, had one dismissed, and the other were two
> nolle prossed. However, when you filed to have the
> records expunged, the court denied your petition
> because you already have other criminal
> convictions unrelated to the four misdemeanor
> charges.
>
> In order to have your record expunged, the court
> has to find that the continued existence and
> possible dissemination of the information
> constitutes a manifest injustice to you. Since you
> already had criminal convictions for other
> offenses, the court is wholly within its rights to
> deny your petition. From §19.2-392.2.
> F.:

After receiving the criminal
> history record information from the CCRE, the
> court shall conduct a hearing on the petition. If
> the court finds that the continued existence and
> possible dissemination of information relating to
> the arrest of the petitioner causes or may cause
> circumstances which constitute a manifest
> injustice to the petitioner, it shall enter an
> order requiring the expungement of the police and
> court records, including electronic records,
> relating to the charge. Otherwise, it shall deny
> the petition. However, if the petitioner has no
> prior criminal record and the arrest was for a
> misdemeanor violation, the petitioner shall be
> entitled, in the absence of good cause shown to
> the contrary by the Commonwealth, to expungement
> of the police and court records relating to the
> charge, and the court shall enter an order of
> expungement.

Your next step is to
> appeal the decision of the court to the next
> higher court. Since your case was heard before the
> Circuit Court, this court is the Court of Appeals
> of Virgina.
>
> Your petition must include a reason why, despite
> your previous criminal convictions, the continued
> existence of the record constitutes a manifest
> injustice and how the court that denied
> your petition was in error. This means reading
> case law to see how §19.2-392.2. has been
> applied to other people in your position before
> and citing those cases in your petition.
>
> The truth is that you really, really don't want to
> go before the Court of Appeals without experienced
> and qualified counsel. If you don't want to pay a
> lawyer to handle this, it's pretty much the end of
> the road.
>
> Disclaimer: This post does not constitute legal
> advice.



Geez man you just shot my dreams down of an expungment. I appreciate the explaination...are you a laywer? Are you telling me that the only way of getting my charges expunged is through a laywer? It seems difficult and tricky. I have to read you citations of the law to better understand it. My ORIGINAL question was "how do i refile or reopen an expungement case?" I'm guessing the term is appeal the denied decision?

Hippy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Woah
>
> Is this really FFU? There are a few intelligent
> posts in this thread. Has this board been hacked?


What is FFU? this board hasn't been hacked. I'm just trying to get answers to my questions.

Hippy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Woah
>
> Is this really FFU? There are a few intelligent
> posts in this thread. Has this board been hacked?


Penis.


There. Things are back to normal now.

x4KxX Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hippy Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Woah
> >
> > Is this really FFU? There are a few
> intelligent
> > posts in this thread. Has this board been
> hacked?
>
>
> Penis.

>
>
> There. Things are back to normal now.


haha what a tool

C-Lo Green Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Geez man you just shot my dreams down of an
> expungment. I appreciate the explaination...are
> you a laywer? Are you telling me that the only way
> of getting my charges expunged is through a
> laywer? It seems difficult and tricky. I have to
> read you citations of the law to better understand
> it. My ORIGINAL question was "how do i refile or
> reopen an expungement case?" I'm guessing the term
> is appeal the denied decision?

The complicating factor in your case is the fact that you have other criminal convictions unrelated to the four misdemeanors. If you didn't have those, you probably could have filed the petition yourself (it's even available as a fill-in-the-blanks PDF on the internet at http://www.courts.state.va.us/forms/circuit/cc1473.pdf, with instructions at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/courts/circuit/pdf/CCR-A-35.PDF) and gotten your expungement without paying a lawyer.

You can do things like this yourself: it's called representing yourself pro se, but you should generally only do it in the simplest of cases.

Because of your complicating factor, hiring a lawyer was a good decision, but I don't understand why she took the case in the first place since there seems to be such a high probability that your petition would be rejected. She must have a good reason for why she thought she could win, which she should have articulated in your original petition. (Unless you forgot to tell her about your other convictions, which she should have asked about, regardless.)

Otherwise, she was pretty much acting as a (very expensive) secretary (or at best a paralegal) and filling in the blanks in the forms I mentioned above.

You can move forward on your own if you want to, but most judges are extremely disinclined to look favorably on pro se litigants, meaning you will get no help from them. You need to know the rules of court, and you'll have to spend a lot of time in the law library (the one at the Fairfax court house is free and open to the public) reading case law* to see how the law has been applied in the past. You're also going to have to learn how to understand legal citation, which is a real bit of a brain twister.

Additionally, the judge's decision should include a reason why your petition was denied, and this would be where your research would be useful, to show the judge's error in applying the law.

My advice would be to find another attorney and consult with him (or her) as to what your chances are of obtaining an expungement before you fork over another cent. Tell them your facts (4 misdemeanors, 1 not guilty, 1 dismissed, 2 nolle prossed, but prior criminal convictions, original petition denied in Circuit Court). They may know some vaguery of the law your original attorney didn't, or they may tell you you have no chance and save your cash.

Also, even if they do find grounds to appeal, the truth is that because of the time they're going to have to take to research, prepare, and present your case will be very involved, and therefore very expensive, and this may in and of itself dissuade you from moving forward.

*Start at Brown v. Commonwealth, 278 Va. 92, 677 S.E.2d 220 (2009) This decision discusses whether or not the plantiffs had the right to seek an expungement under the law, specifically the "otherwise dismissed" wording in § 19.2-392.2.A(2), but does have some discussion of the meaning of "manifest injustice" in § 19.2-392.2.F.

Disclaimer: This post does not constitute legal advice.

Given your prior charges, pay the extra for the lawyer. It sucks I know, but you'll thank us all later.

Someone else asked if you had previous convictions-if so, then getting the 4 not guilty's is going to be a problem.

Sorry.

I just found out that my arrest record has been expunged. However, it is alive and kicking here in FFUG.:-) My arrest was unwarranted, the case was dismissed due to lack of evidence, etc., and my lawyer filed for expungement since this had been such a trauma for me for personal & moral reasons.Yet I find my trial still continues on the web.

While this website can be useful in fishing out information to keep our kids and neighborhoods safer, but it perpetuates the misery of innocent people like me who were arrested on false charges, their cases dismissed, yet their trial never seems to end. This can also lead to unsafe conditions and hostile environments for the likes of me who may find their neighbors and friends ostracizing them, and all job leads ending up nowhere. Perhaps you should delete such records so people like me can go on with their lives....

Expunged? How? You snitchen again? did the crime but could not do the time? sissy.

Thanks for the humor - laughed after having sobbed for the past hour or so (sissy, yes!). If I had done the crime, I would have gladly done the time as well and would have felt vindicated that I paid the price for my bad behavior. But here I am paying for the bad behavior of someone else...if this is karma, then at least part of my debt has been paid :-) So lighthearted yet useless answer - ;-)

"Can anyone give more information about how expungement works?"

you have to wait for a period. years.

then ask the clerk for a motion to expunge form, fill it out, wait for response

you don't have "to serve it" because, i guess, the comlaintant is the police and or courts and your giving it to them directly and get a stamp. (i assume)

-------------------------
if you were innocent you many NOT want to expunge.

reason being is if you get legally harassed by legal people you can't show you were if you allowed them to delete all the evidence they falsely prosecuted you multiple times

-------------------------------
after longer period the records are forgotten. because it costs money to keep them all on file.

----------------------
however gov is stupid these days.

they keep records of failed prosecutions and use it against people in the media

if you get it expunged doesn't mean some computer somewhere hasn't stored it (ie, like lexus nexus) and won't show "code charges" to a prospective employer - even ones that failed in court

there isn't much government hasn't fucked up, in other words

where do you have to apply for expungement

how to apply Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> where do you have to apply for expungement

You file a Petition for Expungement in the Circuit Court Clerk's office. A downloadable fill-in-the-blanks form is available at http://www.courts.state.va.us/forms/circuit/cc1473.pdf, with instructions at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/courts/circuit/pdf/CCR-A-35.PDF.

There are also forms for the following situations available for download from the Legal Services of Northern Virginia website at http://www.lsnv.org/Library/Forms_By_Category
∙ Expungement Petition Mistaken Identity
∙ Expungement Petition Multiple Criminal Charges
∙ Expungement Petition No Prior Criminal Record

Scroll down until you see the "Expungement" section.

If the instructions are too confusing for you, or you're otherwise not comfortable doing this yourself, I strongly recommend hiring an attorney to handle this for you or otherwise obtaining legal advice (for example, at Legal Services of Northern Virginia if you're poor or indigent), because if you fuck it up, you will have wasted a significant amount of your time and money.

Disclaimer: This post is not legal advice.

Getting an actual guilty conviction is almost impossible to expunge off ones record. This takes an absolute pardon of the crime committed from the Governor of Virginia; that or file under the "First Offender" law and one can have a first non-violent offense with guilty verdict expunged off their record. I know this because I am in the same situation I was arrested for carry of a concealed weapon (Handgun) a class 1 Misdemeanor like 4 years ago this is VA Code 18.2-308 I was in supposed violation of. I got an attorney and went to court for this charge. I didn't violate the law per VA Code 18.2-308 as my handgun was unloaded and "secured" in my private motor vehicle or vessel per law so my case was nolle prosed.

I then met a female a few years later who has issues and had me arrested about 5 times for outrageous charges that were all thrown out of court by dismissal or nolle processed in accordance with VA Code § 19.2-151. These charges are unrelated to my handgun charge which was before I knew her. The VA code for statue of limitations for prosecution has passed on my concealed carry charge 18.2-308 so I filed for expungement. I am not an attorney but can do legal research and read the law as I did go to school for Intelligence Analysis so I can represent myself just fine in court. I stated numerous laws to the Judge and Commonwealth Attorney who was illegally using my already dismissed arrests against me with no relevance to the charge I was seeking to expunge and they denied my application.

Basically since you have multiple arrests you are screwed. The Commonwealth will discriminate against you even though you were found innocent, charge was dismissed or nolle prosed with no fines, fees, restitution or other differed judgement against you. This is exactly what happened in my case. I wasn't even at fault for the arrests from the woman who falsely accused of of things which I was arrested for. This female went to the Magistrate and swore out warrants for my arrest rather than the police because they were civil issues that the police wouldn't put warrants for arrest out for. In turn my life and reputation were now ruined because of these loopholes in the system which affect actual law abiding citizens and individuals who make a mistake in their life. I am not perfect I plead guilty to a reckless driving charge about 10+ years ago. This was not on my record when they denied me my expungement.

Basically you need a lawyer if you are denied because they don't have to hear your case again. I showed up massively prepared and even sounded better than an actual attorney who showed up for expungement for his client and they had theirs denied as well. Basically having an affidavit or someone show up to testify and be cross examined by the Commonwealth Attorney about how your record creates a "Manifest Injustice" to you per the expungement law of VA code § 19.2-392.2(F) states basically that an expungement can be given due to this "Manifest Injustice" if the petitioner does not have any other arrests or convictions. This manifest injustice is the dissemination of your arrest record which can prevent you from attending college, applying for housing, loans and jobs etc.

This is basically why having an attorney is essential. There are some attorneys who don't do their jobs and don't do what they are paid to do and some that are very good at what they do and do their job. This is just like any other job there are good people who know and do their job and those who don't. Getting a good attorney who has a good track record and defense strategy etc will go a long way. This and also paying for a court stenographer will also help. This way the Commonwealth Attorney when cross examining you or whatever will be more inclined not to trip him/herself up thus helping also to grant your expungement.

Look on the VA court case system and pull cases from the Courts all the way to the Supreme Court where expungements were granted to individuals this also has all the forms needed to apply for expungement of your record. I wish you good luck unfortunately you will need it as the Commonwealth believes in guilty before innocent, discrimination and defamation of character etc. It's easier for them to put warrants out for ones arrest rather then give someone a "second chance" to improve their life; this being especially since the same commonwealth chose not to prosecute you in the particular charges you were arrested for.

Disclaimer: This post is not legal advice. Just the facts/opinions of someone who has been through the legal system and done research etc.

guess what dumb ass ? if you were falsely convicted then get expunged - they later wish to make an issue of it: they will say "oh no ticky no washy we have no record of that"

then later - and i have signed evidence of this - they will ask for money or claim they have on record your a repeat offender: of the same fucking incident they deny knowing of after you expunge. it's a one way deal sucker.

be careful about "get it expunged" it is not always in YOUR favor to do so

Dumb ass is someone who doesn't actually read a post and responds with such childish insults. You are worse than a dumb ass. I was falsely accused not convicted (once again had you read you would comprehend). Next off the charge I was seeking to have expunged was irrelevant to the ones recently that I was falsely accused of and had them dismissed. If you have no idea how the system works then save yourself some time and the respect of your fellow peers and don't answer. Other than that educate yourself so you can sound somewhat knowledgeable on the topic of discussion.

I have yet to have those charges expunged due to the timeframe of those charges. For Misdemeanors that are non-violent in which they chose not to prosecute is 1 year for the statue of limitations for such prosecution. This means the Commonwealth cannot decided to charge you despite it being nolle prosed. Expungement is different in VA than other states as they only remove the details in the Central Criminal Records Exchange (CCRE) which is run by the VA State Police. This information just like another poster mentioned doesn't mean that another outside company like LexisNexis doesn't have your files already saved on their servers etc. There are other states which actually destroy the documents and remove them from the system which is better than what VA does.

Most employers and even government agencies go back 10 years on your records. This corresponds with other investigations if you have had one with the government before; it will show anything that has happened since your last investigation etc.

It's actually against the law for the state and local government to ask you for money for something that was dismissed or expunged that law is § 19.2-392.49 (B) as titled "Prohibited practices by employers, educational institutions,agencies, etc., of state and local governments."

B. Agencies, officials, and employees of the state and local governments shall not, in any application, interview, or otherwise, require an applicant for a license, permit, registration, or governmental service to disclose information concerning any arrest or criminal charge against him that has been expunged. An applicant need not, in answer to any question concerning any arrest or criminal charge that has not resulted in a conviction, include a reference to or information concerning charges that have been expunged. Such an application may not be denied solely because of the applicant's refusal to disclose information concerning any arrest or criminal charge against him that has been expunged.

C. A person who willfully violates this section is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor for each violation.

Next off getting something expunged is the best thing in one's favor. The best thing you can do is get a pardon or writ of actual innocence. The next "best thing" one can do is get an expungement. I had a family member get a Governor Pardon for something stupid for like disturbing the peace cause him and his wife had car trouble and went to a few houses to ask to use their phone to call for help. This took him like 3 years to get. He renlentlessly wrote letters, relentlessly called and spoke with his receptionists etc for years. After all was said and done he still had to file for expungement of that bogus charge despite being granted a pardon. The pardon makes a guarantee for a particular conviction to be expunged by order of the Governor as it was treated as it never happened. My brother still had to remove the case info, arrest/summons, court documents etc from the system which is why the expungement was necessary. I don't know if they automatically do it now when granted a pardon but one doesn't have to show up for court to be granted a pardon that's why I "assume" not. This is the reason why an expungement is basically the only route one can go as it's quicker than trying to get a pardon of a particular charge. Not to mention imagine writing a governor and asking for pardon of 5 criminal arrests in which there were no convictions. That's basically exactly why the Commonwealth denies expungements for multiple arrests cause they like to apply guilt in saying you are not an "innocent person" as the statue of expungement law states.

Next off who do you exactly think is doing the expungement? It's the court system the same one in which arraigned one of the same criminal arrest record one seeks to have expunged. So basically it's wait possibly a couple years for a pardon which is no guarantee and chances are higher that an expungement would be granted before pardon.

The Commonwealth will discriminate against you even though you were found innocent

----------------------
not if i catch them

and i already sued they skipped court

1) you repeated allot of what i warned of

2) if fairfax co were not dishonest sacks of democrat shit you'd be right but then you'd not be getting harassed in the first place

you left out that during the step you listed the county might cheat - and they cheat like hell

modernly it likely won't matter either way

keep your receipt if you get an "expungement" you might need your receipt later. esp. if it was thrown out. keep that record safe.

Do you mind sharing the female lawyer you used in your first attempt to expunge your record? We'd all like to avoid hiring her.

I Had an expungement today in Fairfax. Petition granted. Judge Ortiz.

It has to be about Number 200 for me, and I have never lost yet. Not once.

Lawyer Dude Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I Had an expungement today in Fairfax. Petition
> granted. Judge Ortiz.
>
> It has to be about Number 200 for me, and I have
> never lost yet. Not once.


HOW DO I CONTACT YOU?

if you were falsely convicted then get expunged - they later wish to make an issue of it: they will say "oh no ticky no washy we have no record of that"