In the Matter of the Expungement Petition of J.B., A-1564-11T2; Appellate Division; opinion by Ostrer, J.S.C., temporarily assigned; decided and approved for publication June 21, 2012. Before Judges Axelrad, Sapp-Peterson and Ostrer. On appeal from the Law Division, Burlington County, EX-87-11. DDS No. 14-2-6725 [19 pp.]
When almost 30 years old, petitioner J.B. filed a petition seeking to expunge adjudications that he was delinquent in 1997 on burglary and criminal mischief charges and in 1999 on charges he possessed a machine gun or instrument or device adaptable for use as one, and his 2002 adult conviction for third-degree theft. The trial court denied the petition, relying on its interpretation of N.J.S.A. 2C:52-4.1(a) that states in an unnumbered paragraph: “For purposes of expungement, any act which resulted in a juvenile being adjudged a delinquent shall be classified as if that act had been committed by an adult.” Based on J.B.’s adjudications of delinquency, the court deemed him to have been convicted of burglary, criminal mischief, and firearms possession and concluded that his adult conviction could not be expunged pursuant to 2C:52-2, which prohibits expungement of a criminal conviction if the petitioner has “been convicted of any prior or subsequent crime.” The court also held that expungement had to be denied under 4.1(a)(1), which states that 2C:52-2 shall govern petitions to expunge a juvenile adjudication of an act that would constitute a crime if committed by an adult, because J.B. was deemed convicted of a prior or subsequent crime.
