Expungement in Oregon
According to Oregon law, anyone who has had a criminal conviction expunged may legally state that he or she has no criminal record. When an expungement is granted in Oregon, the arrest records are sealed and cannot be accessed by the general public. Because the records are sealed, they are not destroyed unless certain conditions are met in juvenile court. Certain records can be completely erased three years after a conviction is dismissed. However, all judgment records and records held by law enforcement agencies will be sealed and preserved. According to Oregon law, destroying records does not result in their deletion.
An arrest in Oregon can be set aside, as well as expungement and record sealing. Setting an arrest aside does not completely seal the case. Under certain circumstances, the court may grant a motion to open the record. If a person is not eligible for expungement, he or she may be eligible for record sealing or setting aside a conviction instead. All probation records, parole records, court records, prison records, jail records, and police records are expunged when a record is expunged under Oregon law 137.225. Police investigation records can sometimes be erased. If it is in the public interest, the court has the authority to order the expungement of juvenile records, either the entire record or portions of the record.
Eligibility for Expungement in Oregon
In Oregon, only certain cases are eligible for expungement. In juvenile cases, this includes cases where five years have passed since the person’s termination; cases where the person has not been convicted of a Class Misdemeanor or a felony since the termination date; cases where the person is not seeking adjudication or criminal conviction; and cases where the person has not violated laws under 419B.100 a, b, c, and f of delinquency cases.
Adult jurisdiction applies to anyone over the age of eighteen who has been convicted of a crime. These records can be set aside if at least one year has passed since the arrest or case dismissal or acquittal; at least three years has passed since the conviction date; all requirements have been fulfilled as stated by the court—restitution payment and sentences—no outstanding charges have been filed for any other crime; and no subsequent convictions, except minor traffic violations, have followed within the years of the conviction. Any conviction that is to be overturned cannot be for a municipal or state traffic offense. Convictions that have previously been set aside are used as priors in pending conviction setting aside cases, and if they were set aside within the ten-year time period, they will be included as priors.
There are several types of setting aside petitions, such as second degree attempted assault, child abandonment, third degree assault, coercion, first degree criminal mistreatment, first degree attempted escape, incest for victims under the age of eighteen, unlawful use of a weapon, first degree intimidation, second degree attempted kidnapping, second degree attempted robbery, third degree robbery, and supplying contraband. Any sexual crime, child abuse, first degree criminal mistreatment, endangering a minor, most Class C felonies, violent misdemeanors and felonies, and other specific cases are prohibited in Oregon.