• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Categories
    • Civil
    • Criminal
    • Juvenile
  • Courts
    • Supreme
    • Appeals
    • Tax
    • SCOTUS
    • 7th Circuit
  • Judges

Case Clips

Published by the Indiana Office of Court Services

J.B. v. State, No. 53A01-1408-CR-367, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Mar. 10, 2015).

March 12, 2015 Filed Under: Criminal Tagged With: Appeals, P. Riley

Riley, J.
On August 21, 2014, the trial court issued its Order, denying J.B.’s motion to reconsider. The trial court explained that because J.B. was granted an earned dismissal, his judgment of conviction was vacated. Thus, the trial court found that “[u]nder the statute, [J.B.] is not eligible for expungement of conviction as there is no conviction to expunge.” (Appellant’s App. p. 15).
. . . .
J.B. was convicted of Class A misdemeanor battery and sentenced to a one-year term of probation. Following the completion of his sentence, the trial court dismissed J.B.’s conviction. The clear and unequivocal language of the expungement statute permits a person who has been convicted of a misdemeanor—i.e., J.B.—to “petition a court to expunge all conviction records.” I.C. § 35-38-9-2(b) (emphasis added). As this court has previously indicated, expungement is not an automatic consequence of dismissal. Zagorac v. State, 943 N.E.2d 384, 391 (Ind. Ct. App. 2011), reh’g denied. Accordingly, by simply dismissing J.B.’s judgment of conviction, the trial court did nothing to purge the records of the court and other agencies that relate to that conviction.
. . . .
. . . Likewise, we find that the dismissal of J.B.’s conviction would be meaningless if the records concerning that conviction were to remain accessible, and we cannot conclude that the General Assembly would have intended such a result. Accordingly, we remand with instructions for the trial court to order the conviction records described in Indiana Code section 35-38-9-2(b) to be expunged in accordance with Indiana Code section 35-38-9-6.
Vaidik, C.J. and Baker, J. concur .
 

Read the full opinion

If the link to the opinion in this case isn’t available above, you can search for it at public.courts.in.gov/decisions

Footer

About

Case Clips is a weekly publication of the Indiana Office of Court Services featuring appellate opinions curated by IOCS staff for Indiana judges.

Subscribe
  • Flickr
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Archive

Copyright © 2025 · Indiana Office of Court Services · courts.in.gov/iocs