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PA Bulletin, Doc. No. 99-78

THE COURTS

Title 255--LOCAL COURT RULES

CARBON COUNTY

Adoption of Local Procedure for the Automated Expungement of Records at Conclusion of Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program; No. 139 MI 98

[29 Pa.B. 330]

Administrative Order No. 16-1998

   And Now, this 29th day of December, 1998, it is hereby Ordered and Decreed that Carbon County Adopts the following local procedure governing the Automated Expungement of Records at the Conclusion of Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program which shall be effective 30 days after publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.

   The Carbon County District Court Administrator is Ordered and Directed to do the following:

   1.  File seven (7) certified copies of this Administrative Order and Procedure with the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

   2.  File two (2) certified copies and one (1) diskette with the Legislative Reference Bureau for publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.

   3.  File one (1) certified copy with the Pennsylvania Criminal Procedural Rules Committee.

   4.  Forward one (1) copy for publication in the Carbon County Law Journal.

   5.  Forward one (1) copy to the Carbon County Law Library.

   6.  Keep continuously available for public inspection copies of the Order and Procedure in the Clerk of Courts Office.

By the Court

JOHN P. LAVELLE,   
President Judge

Automated Expungement of Records at Conclusion of Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program

A)  Disposition

   The following procedure shall be used to finalize disposition of all cases in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) Program:

   1)  The Court Data Processing Director will create an alphabetically sequenced file, which lists those persons presently under the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) Program, or having ever participated in such a program. The Chief of Adult Probation and the District Attorney will each receive a copy.

   2)  Each month, the Data Processing Unit will create a list of all probationers whose ARD probation period has terminated the previous month. This list will be distributed as in (1) above.

   3)  The District Attorney will be responsible for reviewing the list. If the District Attorney has an objection, he must voice that objection within thirty (30) days of creation of the list.

   4)  If a case is reinstated for cause prior to the completion of the stipulated ARD probation period, the District Attorney must notify the Court Calendar Officer so that the case will then be properly relisted for trial.

B)  Expungement

   The following procedure shall be effective immediately to automatically expunge the criminal case record for those defendants who have completed the conditions(s) of the ARD Program.

   1)  At the end of each month, the Adult Probation Office will prepare a list of all cases reaching final disposition under the ARD Program during the month. A copy of the list shall be provided to the District Attorney. The produced list will carry a date on which the cases will be tentatively scheduled before the President Judge or his/her appointee. This date will be the first scheduled motion list date of the next month.

   2)  The District Attorney will review the listing of potential expungements and present the complete list to the President Judge indicating any cases which he/she feels should not be expunged along with the reason why the expungement should not take place. For proper cause, the case will be deleted from the expungement list by the President Judge.

   3)  In those cases in which the item is deleted, a letter will be produced and forwarded to the last known address of the defendant and to his attorney-of-record informing each that the case will not be automatically expunged by the Court, but that a petition may be initiated.

   The intent of an expungement will be to prevent the inquiry into a person's criminal history of the expunged case by reference to the criminal records of 1) the local police department, 2) the Pennsylvania State Police, 3) the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and 4) the file folders and computer files of the Carbon County Common Pleas Court and District Justice Courts.

   4)  The fashion in which this will be accomplished will be as follows:

   a)  The defendant computer record will be removed from the computer file maintained by the Clerk of Courts Office so that reference to an individual's computer criminal history may not be made from either the video screens or current batch-processed disposition listing.

   b)  At the same time the Court's computer record is expunged as in 4(a) above, an Order will be automatically produced ordering the local police department to destroy all criminal records, fingerprints, photographs, and photographic plates and to update the criminal extract to totally eliminate reference to the expunged incident.

   c)  The order in (b) above shall also order the Carbon County Bureau of Collections, the Adult Probation Office, the District Justice Offices, the Pennsylvania State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to destroy all records pertaining to the same arrest.

   d)  The order in (b) above shall also order the Court Data Processing Director to remove all references pertaining to the same arrest from the computer indices of the Court of Common Pleas of Carbon County and the District Justices of Carbon County.

   e)  A letter shall be automatically produced for the District Attorney and mailed to the local police department and to the last known address of the defendant, informing him or her that the local police department, the Pennsylvania State Police, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been ordered to expunge the criminal record for that specific case, that this procedure will be allowed only once in a person's life and that expungement will take place within ninety (90) days of the date of the Expungement Order. A copy of this letter shall also be sent to the defendant's attorney-of-record.

   f)  A certification, which states that the destruction of records has taken place as ordered, affixed to the Expungement Order shall be signed and returned by the local police department to the Clerk of Courts. Said certification shall also be signed by the Court Data Processing Director. The Clerk of Courts shall then insert a copy of the certification with each appropriate case folder. The applicable case folder shall then be placed in a confidential status.

   5.  A monthly updated confidential list of completed expungements under this procedure shall be maintained by the Court.

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 99-78. Filed for public inspection January 15, 1999, 9:00 a.m.]


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