Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Denver criminal defense lawyer / sealing a DUI?

One possible resolution that a Denver criminal defense lawyer can negotiate for you is a deferred judgment. With a deferred judgment, the defendant pleads guilty to a crime, but the judge does not sentence him immediately. The defendant generally has to complete a few conditions of the judgment--generally pay restitution, and perform community service while staying out of trouble for a period of time. If at the end of that time all the conditions of the judgment are fulfilled, the defendant can petition to seal the record so the arrest does not show up on future background checks or other inquiries into the defendant's record. This works for most minor cases, particularly things like shoplifting where the court is more interested in an elaborate apology and some act of penance rather than a pound of flesh.

However, there is a major exception. The legislature considers a guilty plea to be a conviction. Although the conviction can actually be wiped clean through the record sealing process in most cases, there is an exception where the public good and public safety would be better served having that information publicly available. This primarily applies in two situations. The first is sex offenses. Although most sex offenses are serious enough such that a deferred judgment and subsequent record sealing would not be offered, some are relatively minor. And in those cases, even if it is a misdemeanor, the legislature and courts have determined that the public safety and public interest is better served having that information remain on the defendant's record.

The second main and specific exception to the ability to clear deferred judgments from your record is for DUIs. In the case In Re Harte the Court of Appeals determined that the public safety and public interest caveat to the law allowing for record sealing was intended to exclude deferred DUI judgments from record sealing. That means if you plead guilty to a DUI and the court issues a deferred judgment, even if you comply with all the rules and conditions of the deferred judgment and the case is dismissed, the guilty plea will remain on your record and there is nothing you can do about it. The broader upshot of this is if charged with a DUI, you really ought to speak to a Denver criminal defense lawyer; the consequences can be extremely serious to both your driving record and your (irreparable) criminal record. Although the case may have been dismissed after fulfilling the terms of a deferred DUI judgment, the arrest and guilty plea will remain on your record permanently.

3 comments:

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