T.C.R. v. Bell County District Attorney's Office

305 S.W.3d 661, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 6136, 2009 WL 3319922
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 6, 2009
Docket03-08-00627-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by55 cases

This text of 305 S.W.3d 661 (T.C.R. v. Bell County District Attorney's Office) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
T.C.R. v. Bell County District Attorney's Office, 305 S.W.3d 661, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 6136, 2009 WL 3319922 (Tex. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

BOB PEMBERTON, Justice.

This appeal presents an issue — -apparently of first impression — regarding the requirements for expunction under article 55.01(a)(2) of the code of criminal procedure, as amended in 2001. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 55.01(a)(2) (West 2006); see Act of May 29, 1989, 71st Leg., R.S., ch. 803, § 1, 1989 Tex. Gen. Laws 3666, 3666 (amended 2001) (current version at Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 55.01(a)). Appellant T.C.R. appeals a district court order denying his petition to expunge records related to his arrests on two felony charges from the 1990s that were ultimately dismissed in connection with his plea bargains in other cases. The sole issue in dispute is whether T.C.R. could satisfy paragraph (A) of article 55.01(a)(2) by proving that the limitations periods for the felony charges he seeks to expunge expired before he filed his ex-punction petition, as required by subpara-graph (i) of paragraph (A), see Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 55.01 (a)(2)(A)(i), or whether he must instead obtain a finding that the charges were dismissed because their presentment had been made because of mistake, false information, or other similar reason indicating absence of probable cause at the time of dismissal to believe he committed the offense, or the charging instrument was void, as required in sub-paragraph (ii) of paragraph (A). See id. art. 55.01(a)(2)(A)(ii). The district court found that T.C.R. had failed to prove the requirements of subparagraph (ii) and denied his petition for that reason alone. Because we conclude that article 55.01(a)(2) also permits T.C.R. to satisfy paragraph (A) by proving the requirements in subparagraph (i), and because there is no dispute that he met those requirements and the other conditions for expunction under article 55.01(a)(2), we reverse the order denying expunction and remand for entry of an order granting expunction.

Expunction — the remedy through which a person who has been arrested for the commission of an offense can have all information about the arrest removed from the State’s records — is not a constitutional or common-law right, but purely a statutory privilege. See Heine v. Texas Dep’t of Pub. Safety, 92 S.W.3d 642, 648 (Tex.App.-Austin 2002, pet. denied); McCarroll v. Texas Dep’t of Pub. Safety, 86 S.W.3d 376, 378 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth 2002, no pet.); Harris County Dist. Attorney v. Lacafta, 965 S.W.2d 568, 569 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1997, no pet.). Article 55.01(a) of the code of criminal procedure creates a cause of action through which a person can establish an entitlement to expunction. See Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 55.01(a); Heine, 92 S.W.3d at 648. Although article 55.01 is located in the code of criminal procedure, the cause of action it creates is civil i-ather than criminal in nature. Texas Dep’t of Pub. Safety v. J.H.J., 274 S.W.3d 803, 806 (Tex.App-Houston [14th Dist.] 2008, no pet.). Article 55.01 imposes a number of conditions or elements that the petitioner has the burden of proving; unless the petitioner meets each element, there is no right to the expunction remedy. Id.; Harris County Dist. Attorney’s Office v. Hopson, 880 S.W.2d 1, 3 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1994, no writ). The trial court must strictly comply with the statutory requirements, and it has no equitable power to expand the remedy’s availability beyond what the legislature has provided. Lacafta, 965 S.W.2d at 569; Harris Coun *664 ty Dist. Attorney’s Office v. M.G.G., 866 S.W.2d 796, 798 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1993, no writ). Conversely, if the petitioner demonstrates that he has satisfied each of the requirements under article 55.01(a), the trial court has a mandatory duty to grant the expunction petition. Heine, 92 S.W.3d at 648.

In his verified petition for ex-punction 1 filed on March 27, 2008, T.C.R. pled that he had been arrested on February 2, 1997 for the offense of burglary of a habitation allegedly committed on the same day, and arrested in April of that year for allegedly committing the offense of sexual assault in April 1996. T.C.R. sought expunction of records relating to these arrests under the following provisions of article 55.01(a):

Art. 55.01. RIGHT TO EXPUNCTION. (a) A person who has been placed under a custodial or noncustodial arrest for commission of either a felony or misdemeanor is entitled to have all records and files relating to the arrest expunged if:
⅜ * *
(2) each of the following conditions exist:
(A)an indictment or information charging the person with commission of a felony has not been presented against the person for an offense arising out of the transaction for which the person was arrested or, if an indictment or information charging the person with commission of a felony was presented, the indictment or information has been dismissed or quashed, and:
(i) the limitations period expired before the date on which a petition for expunction was filed under Article 55.02; or
(ii) the court finds that the indictment or information was dismissed or quashed because the presentment had been made because of mistake, false information, or other similar reason indicating absence of probable cause at the time of the dismissal to believe the person committed the offense or because it was void;
(B) the person has been released and the charge, if any, has not resulted in a final conviction and is no longer pending and there was no court ordered community supervision under Article 42.12 for any offense other than a Class C misdemeanor; and
(C) the person has not been convicted of a felony in the five years preceding the date of the arrest.

Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 55.01(a)(2). T.C.R. pled — and, at the subsequent hearing, presented evidence 2 — that he had been indicted for both offenses and that the indictments had been dismissed, see id. art. 55.01(a)(2)(A); that the limitations period for these offenses had expired before he filed his expunction petition (i.e., the requirements of paragraph (A), subpara-graph (i)), see id. art. 55.01(a)(2)(A)(i); that he had been released from custody, the charges did not result in a final conviction and were no longer pending, and there was no court-ordered community supervision under article 42.12, see id. art. 55.01(a)(2)(B); 3 and that he had not been convicted of a felony during the five years *665 preceding the two arrests for which he sought expunction. See id. art.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
305 S.W.3d 661, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 6136, 2009 WL 3319922, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tcr-v-bell-county-district-attorneys-office-texapp-2009.