By Rose Mauro, Staff Attorney
Miguel (fictitious name) came to us for help with expungement of 19 cases, covering a span of 10+ years. The charges varied, ranging from drug charges, assault with a weapon charge, identity theft charges, and resisting arrest charges. Most of the charges stemmed from long time substance abuse.
Initially, I had doubts about whether he would be a good candidate for expungements. He not only had numerous convictions and cases but violated every probation and parole he was put on. He also served time in state prison. However, after speaking with him at length and discussing the changes he’d made in recent years and his accomplishments, I decided to move forward in assisting him to petition the court to expunge all his cases.
Miguel had graduated from college and was in a master’s degree program at Cal State Long Beach, studying social work. He also worked for Orangewood Foundation as an intake social worker and with the Young Adult Court at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. He gave us character letters from the presiding judge of Orange County Court and one of the supervisors in the Orange County District Attorney’s office confirming he worked with young adults who were first time offenders in a program that focused on giving them job training resources, rehabilitation services, with the opportunity to earn a dismissal of their first felony arrest. Everyone confirmed he was an excellent role model in court and used his experience to motivate and inspire the young first-time offenders.
In his personal life, he had re-established his family relationships and became a present father to his young children. He was active in their lives and volunteered as their coaches and involved in their extracurricular activities. He was also involved with his local church and was doing other good work such as volunteering.
We had an expungement hearing in October and the judge started off hesitant with all 19 petitions in front of him. But once we presented all the positive changes Miguel had made and what he had accomplished and was still pursuing, the judge granted all 19 expungement petitions. The judge gave an eloquent and inspiring speech about it never being too late to get back on the right path to Miguel and a courtroom full of felony defendants currently facing criminal charges.
Miguel was very emotional and grateful for our help. He stated this was the final closure to that part of his life and he could fully move on now to pursue better career opportunities and to start life “fresh” without any criminal convictions on his record.
