Hello and good afternoon. In 1996 I was charged with a class B misdemeanor in NY but pled guilty to a violation, a non-fingerprintable offense in NY. I paid a $50 fine and received a conditional discharge. In 1997 the fingeprints, DA records and police records were sealed as per 160.55 of the NY CPL. However the court file remains unsealed due to the conviction. According to 160.55, it is supposed to leave the defendant's record looking as if he/she were only given a ticket for the offense rather than having been arrested an fingerprinted
A few years later out of curiosity I did a background check of my record through a company that searched criminal court records for companies and individuals. This company went to the NY state Office of Court Administration(OCA), the database that searches for convictions in NY, and returned these results to me. It was a 10 year search done in 2001.
RECORD FOUND
Date of Offense: 6/21/96
Offense: SEALED
Judgment: PLED GUILTY
Disposition: PLED GUILTY TO DISORDERLY CONDUCT (Violation)
Disposition Date: 6/22/96
Sentence: RECEIVED CONDITIONAL DISCHARGE
Casetype: NOT SPECIFIED
With respect to the arrest charge(the B misdemeanor) being 'sealed", is this something that always happens in every court when the original charge is reduced to a lesser one? This was not a "plea bargain" but a "guilty plea" (unless i am mistaken).
The original charge is listed on my certificate of disposition in number form and the original complaint is still public record in the court file. Some people at the OCA tell me they seal the arrest charge if the charge was reduced, others say "they used to do that but no more"
Does anyone know how this works?