How to make sure dismissed cases are erased from your criminal record
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- He was arrested for a crime he didn't commit, but even after the charge was dropped, his family is now stuck trying to figure out how to clear his name.
On Thursday, ABC13 brought you the story of a teen's wrongful arrest that landed him in jail for two days and left his family with thousands in fees.
ORIGINAL REPORT: 'It's unfair': Mother says teen's wrongful arrest had him in jail for 48 hours
On Friday, the Constable told ABC13 he's working to fix what he admits is an unfair situation.
Leonard King is a high school senior and a football player who wants to be a dentist when he grows up. Last month, he was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Leonard's mother said she tracked down video of the fight her son was allegedly involved in, and court records show that deputies saw the video and realized they had the wrong guy.
Records show that Leonard was released and the charge was dismissed, but not before he spent 48 hours in jail.
But his mother worries the charge could still impact his future.
"I feel like it's unfair," said Rosland Wright. "You made a mistake. Fix it."
The problem is that dismissed charges can still show up on your record. To really disappear, they have to be legally expunged, and you're the one who has to file for it.
"An expunction is effectively saying that this never occurred; we'll destroy all the information," explained Fallon Hamilton Vaughn, a staff attorney with the non-profit Lone Star Legal Aid.
Vaughn said that hiring an attorney and going through the process can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500 and take up to four months.
Law enforcement agencies, Vaughn said, are almost always protected from lawsuits, so the responsibility and burden fall on the person wrongly arrested.
"It really can just upend someone's life completely," she said. "We can't just go around thinking only bad people have criminal records."
Constable Mark Herman said he is now working to ensure Leonard's record is cleared without his family having to go through a long and expensive process.
ABC13's investigative team pulled the data, and records show that 2,200 to 2,900 people file for expunctions in Harris County every year.
The District Attorney granted almost all of them, and not just for dismissed cases, but also for other cases, depending on factors like your age, criminal history, and the severity of the crime.
In some cases, fees are waived. If you think your case qualifies, contact your county's DA.
"There are people who have been living in Texas just thinking that since something has been dismissed it's no longer on their record," Vaughn said.
"There are literally millions of people eligible right now every day walking around right now, sometimes with crimes from 20 years ago, not realizing that they would have been eligible to get it sealed or expunged."
