Van Nuys, Expungement of Convictions After Jury Trial

In June of 2017, our client, then 25, was arrested by the California Highway Patrol, West Valley Station, for resisting / obstructing or delaying arrest (Penal Code § 148(a)(1)) and providing false documentation to a police officer (Vehicle Code § 31). Both charges were misdemeanors.

In November of 2017, she went to trial on the charges in the Van Nuys Superior Court with the assistance of a public defender. The jury convicted her of having committed both offenses. The judge then sentenced her, suspending imposition of the sentence and placing her on three years of summary probation on the following terms and conditions: payment of court fees of $290; performance of ten days of community labor (credit for two actual days, plus two good time, work time days) and to write an apology letter to the CHP Officer involved.

In November of 2020, our client successfully completed all terms of probation. She then moved to Rhode Island and moved back in with her mom, who lived there. In the next few months, she gave birth to a baby girl.

Due to pressing employment concerns, the client called Greg Hill & Associates to ask about expungement, which is provided for at California Penal Code § 1203.4(a). She said she had called two other attorneys who both told her she could not have convictions expunged that were the result of a trial. Greg told her that this was not true at all.

The client then explained the facts of the case to Greg and lamented that now, at age 32, she felt limited in her career as a property manager, particularly since there were advancement opportunity within her employer, one of New England’s most prestigious real estate companies, but she was not invited to apply to anything yet despite being an employee there for several years.

More importantly, our client had become more stable and ambitious. She had no new arrests or convictions. Her employment helped support herself and her daughter. She was also enrolled in a real estate class to obtain her real estate license.

However, she also suspected that having these two recent convictions would bar her from becoming a licensed real estate broker, although she was not certain what Rhode Island’s licensing criteria provided. This was having a crippling impact on her professional life.

The client was concerned that if she could not progress in her career, she would be relegated to living with her mom into the future. She did not want her mom and her daughter to pay for her mistakes.

The cumulative effect of having these convictions, in other words, affected her self-esteem, ambition, and her life goals in the longer term.

Greg explained that expungement under Penal Code § 1203.4 did not erase, delete or remove the conviction from her record (as many people believed). Instead, if the petition were granted, the client would be legally able to state she was not convicted of the convictions expunged, with certain exceptions that Greg explained. The benefits were mostly for employment opportunities, although being able to lawfully deny such convictions also had benefits in seeking housing, being approved for a loan and, within the context of her daughter’s schooling, being able to volunteer as a parent in certain school activities.

The client then retained Greg Hill & Associates and our office then prepared the petition for dismissal using the judicial council form for this, but also adding a short memorandum of points and authorities that included a brief statement of the law on expungement and included a declaration from our client explaining why she requested “expungement.”

Our office then filed the petition and served the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office that prosecuted the case.

The judge assigned to the matter ruled on the petition in chambers, which was nice because there was no hearing, and granted the petition.

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