Expungement in Missouri

If certain requirements are met, Missouri law allows a person to have an arrest record expunged, which the law of Missouri defines as the process of legally destroying, obliterating or striking out records or information in files, computers and other depositories relating to criminal charges.[2]

A person is eligible for expungement in Missouri if the arrest was based on false information and the following conditions exist:[2]

1. There is no probable cause to believe the person committed the offense;
2. No charges will be pursued as a result of the arrest;
3. The person has no prior or subsequent misdemeanor or felony convictions;
4. The person did not receive a suspended imposition of sentence for the offense; and
5. No civil action is pending relating to the arrest or records sought to be expunged.

If a person qualifies, in order to have the records expunged, they must file a verified petition for expungement in the civil division of the Circuit Court in the county of the arrest.[2] The court sets a hearing on the matter no sooner than thirty days after the petition was filed.[2] If the court finds that the petitioner is entitled to expungement of any record, it will enter an order directing expungement.[2]

Records expunged under this provision still may be opened to law enforcement if the person is charged with a subsequent offense or if any of the requirements of expungement no longer are met.[2]

With the 2018 Missouri Expungement Law, a process has been created where around 1,900 eligible offenses can be sealed. Some individuals with misdemeanor convictions can file petitions after three years and those with felonies, after seven years. That waiting time used to be 10 and 20 years respectively. This law opens the door for thousands of offenders to petition the courts to seal or remove their records of arrests and convictions as of January 1, 2018. After a successful petition those with no other criminal record, will be able to honestly answer “no” to inquiries about whether they have a criminal record (Unless a specific employer is required by law to exclude certain applicants).

For individuals who are eligible to start their petition process they have to file them in the court where they were charged or found guilty of the crime (offenses, violations, infractions). The petition must include all names of municipal prosecuting attorneys, law enforcement agencies, courts, state repositories of criminal records – basically any entity that might possess records of the items they wish to have expunged. They must also list every offense they wish to have expunged.

The state will then have 30-days to file objections to the petition you have filed. If there is an objection the court must hold a hearing within 60-days, or 30-days if there is no objection. While the 3 and 7 year waiting period has been stated, the bill does not explicitly demand this, so there might be avenues open for an earlier expungement date. The individual will also have to show the court that their habits and personal conduct, since their release, make them a good candidate for expungement. This is the key element to the success of their petition.

The petition process can take as little as 120-days resulting in a removal of their criminal record from potential landlords, employers and financial institution immediately.

In 2005, the Missouri General Assembly enacted a special new section in the state's Liquor Control Law allowing for the complete and total expungement for the offense of being a minor in possession of alcohol.[3] Unlike ordinary expungement, the MIP expungement exists with the explicit legislative mandate that the effect of an order of expungement under it "shall be to restore such person to the status occupied prior to such arrest, plea or conviction, as if such event had never happened."[3]

After not less than one year since the offense was disposed of, or upon reaching the age of twenty-one, whichever occurs first, a person who pleaded guilty to or was found guilty of the crime of minor in possession of alcohol for the first time, and who since such conviction has not been convicted of any other alcohol-related offense, may apply to the civil division of the circuit court of the county in which the person was sentenced for an order to expunge all official records of the arrest, plea, trial and conviction.[3]

The person also must meet the following requirements:[3]

1. The person has not been convicted of any other alcohol-related offense at the time of the application for expungement; and
2. The person has had no other contacts with law enforcement (i.e. arrest, charge) which were alcohol-related (such as for drunk driving or violation of the terms of a liquor license).

If a person has had an MIP record expunged this way, the law states they cannot "be held thereafter under any provision of any law to be guilty of perjury or otherwise giving a false statement by reason of failure to recite or acknowledge such arrest, plea, trial, conviction or expungement in response to any inquiry made for any purpose whatsoever."[3]

A person is only entitled to one MIP expungement under this special provision.[3]

• Expungement in the United States