W.C.H. v. State
W.C.H. v. State
Opinion of the Court
W.C.H.("Petitioner") filed an amended petition under § 610.140
Per § 610.140.5(1), the court may not grant an expungement request until twenty years has passed since Petitioner completed his probation for the felony offense. Consequently, Petitioner was prevented from seeking expungement until 2011. Petitioner filed an amended petition seeking expungement of his conviction for passing a bad check on April 12, 2017. The trial court entered a judgment in favor of Petitioner. Missouri State Highway Patrol Criminal Records Repository and the Office of the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney ("Appellants") have appealed this judgment, contending that Petitioner has failed to satisfy the requirements of § 610.140.5. Finding Petitioner has complied with all the requirements of § 610.140.5, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Standard of Review
As this is a court-tried case, our review is governed by Murphy v. Carron ,
Discussion
The facts in this case are undisputed. The sole issue presented is a matter of statutory interpretation. The primary rule of statutory interpretation is to effectuate the General Assembly's intent. Bateman v. Rinehart ,
Appellants argue that the trial court erred in granting Petitioner's request for expungement because, in less than a year after his conviction for passing a bad check, he was convicted for driving while intoxicated, thereby barring him from having his conviction for passing a bad check expunged under § 610.140.5. We disagree with Appellants' reading of the statute. Section 610.140.6 allows for the trial court to grant expungement if, after holding a hearing, the court determines that the petitioner "meets all the criteria set forth in subsection 5 of this section." Appellants do not argue that Petitioner has failed to meet the requirements listed in subsections (3), (4), or (5). Thus, only the requirements noted in subsections (1) and (2) are in dispute.
The relevant portion of § 610.140.5 reads:
The court may set a hearing on the matter no sooner than thirty days from the filing of the petition and shall give reasonable notice of the hearing to each entity named in the petition. At the hearing, the court may accept evidence and hear testimony on, and may consider, the following criteria for each of the offenses, violations, or infractions listed in the petition for expungement:
(1) It has been at least twenty years if the offense is a felony, or at least ten years if the offense is a misdemeanor, municipal offense, or infraction, since the person making the application completed :
(a) Any sentence of imprisonment; or
(b) Any period of probation or parole ;
*615(2) The person has not been found guilty of a misdemeanor or felony, not including violations of the traffic regulations provided under chapters 304 and 307, during the time period specified for the underlying offense in subdivision (1) of this subsection ;
Section 610.140.5. (emphasis added).
In the court's findings, it implicitly explains how it applied § 610.140.5 by stating, "More than twenty (20) years has passed since [Petitioner] has completed his probationary period for the felony of passing bad checks under cause number 21CCR-526547," and "[Petitioner] has not been found guilty of a misdemeanor or felony during [that time period]." (emphasis added). We believe the court properly interpreted and applied the statutory provisions in question. Looking only at the relevant language in the statute for addressing this issue, a petitioner meets the criteria in subsection § 610.140.5(1) & (2) if "it has been at least twenty years ... since the person making the application [for expungement] completed any period of probation or parole [and] [t]he person has not been found guilty of a misdemeanor or felony ... during [that twenty year] time period." See § 610.140.5. There is no reference to a petitioner's date of conviction in the provision. We find that the plain language of the statute is unambiguous. When the plain and ordinary language of a statute is clear, "there is no need to resort to tools of interpretation." Bazell ,
Thus, the "the time period specified for the underlying offense in subdivision (1) of [§ 610.140.5]," as applied to Petitioner's case, would begin in April of 1991, when Petitioner completed his probationary period for passing a bad check. § 610.140.5(2). Because Petitioner's conviction for driving while intoxicated occurred on October 15, 1986-outside of "the time period specified" in § 610.140.5(1)-Petitioner met the criterion articulated in § 610.140.5(2), as he had not been found guilty of a misdemeanor or felony during that specified time period.
Conclusion
Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Mary K. Hoff, J., concurs.
Lisa S. Van Amburg, J., concurs.
All statutory references to § 610.140 are to RSMo 2012.
All statutory references to § 570.120 are to RSMo 1977.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.