Expungement bill stuck in committee
BOISE – Criminal records of those found not guilty will remain public after a Senate committee rejected legislation that would have given judges the right to expunge them.
Proponents of House Bill 583 argued the bill has the safeguards necessary to expunge the innocent while protecting the public from potentially dangerous individuals who had criminal charges dropped because of technicalities.
But opponents say the clause, which allows judges to keep records open for public safety reasons, is too broad.
The bill is stuck in the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee after members failed to introduce any motions regarding it.
Backed by Rep. Janice McGeachin, R-Idaho Falls, and former Attorney General and Lt. Gov. David Leroy, it passed the House unanimously this month.
Committee Vice Chairman Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, said the bill’s supporters aren’t willing to accept changes to the bill’s language, making compromise unlikely.
The Legislature will likely take up a different version of the bill next year, Jorgenson said.
“Frankly, it’s an area that deserves a statute that would allow an innocent person to be cleared,” Jorgenson said.
Blackfoot Police Chief David Moore, representing the Idaho Police Chiefs Association, called the bill “the O.J. bill,” referring to O.J. Simpson, the former NFL football star who was acquitted of murder charges but convicted in a wrongful death civil suit.
“Just because someone was found not guilty of committing a specific crime does not mean that they didn’t do something wrong,” Moore said.
The bill’s intent is a worthy one, said Heather Reilly, lobbyist for the Idaho Prosecuting Attorneys Association, but its language would have “unintended and dangerous consequences.”
She used a hypothetical example of a man being arrested multiple times doing things like lurking in the bushes outside a girl’s window or peeping in.
If those charges are dropped because witnesses refuse to testify and a judge expunges the man’s record under this bill, law enforcement officials wouldn’t have knowledge of them if the man is later suspected of a serious sex crime, Reilly said.
“I cannot emphasize enough why investigatory records – court records – are imperative for legal investigations,” Reilly said.
The bill includes a provision that allows for closed records to be accessed per a court order, but if the records are sealed there’s no way to know they even exist, Reilly said.
“A person has to know that it once existed to know that they have to petition the court,” Reilly said.
The Idaho Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys and the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho supported the bill.
“As a former prosecutor, I can tell you that mistakes are made,” said ACLU lobbyist Marty Durand. “When that happens, it’s not enough to say, ‘Oops, sorry.’ “