Record Expungement

[Buckeye Dan]

A friend of mine was charged with domestic assault in the state of Minnesota 10 years ago. A conviction occurred resulting in a M5 and roughly a $150 fine.

Will the state of MN expunge that record and if they do will it remove his federal disqualification where firearms are concerned?

I researched this in some length on my own and drew a big fat I don't know. There seems to be a statute of limitations on some crimes (10 years). I wondered if something so minor might fall off the scope since that is his only offense. If MN allows the limits to run out will the feds still have a record of it keeping him disqualified? There is also some strange language pertaining to constitutional rights in that state.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[garyr]

I am not a lawyer:

So long as the charge was in state court and not federal court and that state allows for the expunging or annulment of the crime and so long as there are no other crimes that would disqualify then your friend should be OK if he gets it taken care of.

Talk to a local lawyer they'll know the specifics.

 

[hso]

He needs a lawyer in MN to answer the question on whether the state will expunge his record. Unless he has some sort of evidence that wasn't available at the time, like the other party recanting, it isn't likely to happen.

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

I typed "minnesota record expungement" into Google and found far more information than we could provide here.

Take a look:
http://www.mncourts.gov/selfhelp/?page=276
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/pubs/expgrecs.pdf

Even after that, the best answer remains as "You'll have to contact an attorney." The same search gave these results:
http://www.mndefenselawyer.com/record-expungement.html
http://www.nvo.com/beaulier/expungement1/

 

[bsctov]

I am not a lawyer but a good friend of mine is, so you should consult one and not consider this "Legal advice".



First, a "Qualifying Relationship" must be established in order for the firearms prohibition to apply, this means that the person who was convicted of the domestic violence misdemeanor must have been one of the following parties:

Anyone who has cohabited with the VICTIM AS a Parent/Spouse/Guardian. (Simply living together is not enough. The defendant must be one of the defined parties.)

Anyone who is similarly situated to a Parent/Spouse/Guardian. (This means having all the same problems and responsibilities. So for example, normally two brothers who get into a fight would not qualify under the Lautenburg amendment UNLESS the attacker was "Similarly Situated" to a parent or guardian, meaning that the attacker was given the responsibility to take care of the brother, he would then have all the same problems and responsibilities of a "Guardian" and it would be a qualifying MCDV.)



If the "Expungement" that MN uses completely removes the record and is totally stricken. Meaning, that there are NO lingering consequences from the conviction whatsoever.

The Federal DV Gun ban only applies if the jurisdiction that convicted you considers the disposition of your case "Convicted". This is an extremely complicated matter.

The only exception I know to this is Ohio's "Sealing" of records while not "technically" relieving the disability, it removes it from being considered a "Conviction" for federal purposes. A well respected attorney and the FBI NICS section have confirmed this.