SB 78

Under current law, a court may order a person's criminal record expunged of a

crime if all of the following apply: 1) the maximum term of imprisonment for the

crime is six years or less (Class H felony and below); 2) the person committed the

crime before the age of 25; 3) the person had not been previously convicted of a felony;

and 4) the crime was not a violent felony. Current law specifies that the

expungement order must be made only at sentencing and then the record is

expunged when the person completes his or her sentence.

This bill removes the condition that the person committed the crime before the

age of 25 (the bill retains the requirements that the crime be no greater than a Class

H felony, the person had no previous felony convictions, and the crime was not a

violent felony) and makes certain traffic crimes ineligible for expungement. This bill

also provides that, if the sentencing court did not order the record expunged, the

person may file a petition with the sentencing court after he or she completes his or

her sentence. Upon receipt of the petition, the court must review the petition and

then may order the record expunged or may deny the petition. If the court denies the

petition, the person may not file another petition for two years, the person must pay

a $100 fee to the county for the second petition, and no person may file more than two

petitions per crime. Finally, this bill limits a person to one expungement. The

changes described in this paragraph retroactively apply to persons who were

convicted of a crime before this bill takes effect.

This bill also allows the sentencing court to order that a person's record not be

eligible for expungement. This bill provides that, if a record is expunged of a crime,

that crime is not considered a conviction for employment purposes and specifies that

employment discrimination because of a conviction record includes requesting a

person to supply information regarding a crime if the record has been expunged of

the crime.

Finally, the bill provides that it is not employment discrimination because of

conviction record for the Law Enforcement Standards Board to consider a conviction

that has been expunged with respect to applying any standard or requirement for the

certification, decertification, or required training of law enforcement officers, tribal

law enforcement officers, jail officers, and juvenile detention officers.