Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: Record Expunged

Weighing the downside of getting caught again are you?

I'm guessing (probably correctly) that your initial conviction for possession was taken under Sec. 7411 so it never was entered into the court's record.

However that conviction is still in your police records (LEIN) and a subsequent offense would be strike 2.

Got it?

Re: Record Expunged

I totally disagree with the first attorney's reply.

When your conviction is "expunged" it is "set aside". In fact, Michigan officially calls the process "setting aside a conviction". Expungement is a colloquial term, not a legal term here.

So, your conviction was SET ASIDE. This means that you were NO LONGER CONVICTED of that crime. It's as if you had NOT been convicted, and you can officially and truthfully tell the world that you were NOT convicted of that charge 9 years ago.

If you did the same conduct in 2009, it would officially / legally be your FIRST offense.

However, your criminal history that is viewable by the courts, police and prosecution (not what's available to the general public) would show the 9-year old arrest / charge / disposition information so those players in the system would know that you had a previous conviction set aside (expunged). Why? You can only expunge your one and only conviction, and if you're successful with that you cannot keep coming back to set aside every later conviction. The system needs to be able to track that you'd had your one expungement.

You should order your criminal record from the State Police (www.michigan.gov/msp) to make sure your 9-yr old convction does not still show the conviction standing. At the MSP site, click on the ICHAT link (it'll cost $10 with a credit card). If it still shows as a conviction, you need to go back to the original court and have the court clerk RE-ABSTRACT the dismissal information to MSP so the computer info is updated.