J.B. v. State of Indiana, 27 N.E.3d 336

In 1999 J.B. pled guilty to Class A misdemeanor battery, received a one-year suspended sentence with probation, and completed sentence requirements.
In 2006 the trial court granted J.B.’s Application for Earned Dismissal and "ordered this cause dismissed without prejudice," vacating the judgment of conviction.
In June 2014 J.B. petitioned under I.C. § 35-38-9-2 to expunge conviction records; the State consented.
The trial court denied the petition, first reasoning the petition failed to seek expungement of an arrest record, then concluding that because the conviction had been dismissed there was no conviction to expunge.
J.B. appealed; the Court of Appeals reviewed statutory interpretation de novo and addressed whether a dismissed conviction is nonetheless eligible for expungement under § 35-38-9-2.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether records of a dismissed misdemeanor conviction may be expunged under I.C. § 35-38-9-2	J.B.: Even though the judgment was dismissed, he was previously convicted and meets statutory criteria for expungement of conviction records	State: § 35-38-9-2 lacks an express exception for dismissed convictions, so dismissal means no conviction exists to expunge	Court: Dismissal of the judgment does not preclude expungement; petitioner eligible and trial court erred in denying relief

Taylor v. State, 7 N.E.3d 362 (Ind. Ct. App.) (expungement statute unambiguously requires expungement when statutory criteria are met)
Zagorac v. State, 943 N.E.2d 384 (Ind. Ct. App.) (dismissal of a conviction is not itself automatic expungement)
State v. Bergman, 558 N.E.2d 1111 (Ind. Ct. App.) (post-conviction pardon required expungement to effectuate relief conferred by pardon)
Kelley v. State, 185 N.E. 453 (Ind.) (pardon "blots out of existence the guilt")
Alvey v. State, 10 N.E.3d 1031 (Ind. Ct. App.) (rules of statutory construction and harmonizing statute sections)