Attorney strives to clear 3 names
New state law allows some felony records to be sealed
A local lawyer is asking courts to seal the long-ago felony convictions of three of his clients, citing a new state law that took effect in January.
Andrew Kossover said he filed the request on the behalf of three former clients of his private practice in New Paltz. He also serves as Ulster County’s public defender.
Kossover said he has petitioned the court to seal 1988 and 2004 convictions for drug possession and a 1991 burglary conviction.
“These are people who were young and made a mistake,” Kossover said. “Now they’re adults
on a career path in which the felony conviction would greatly impede that path.
“All of these individuals have served their communities,” he said. “They’ve done things like worked for community organizations, not-for-profits ... they are all gainfully employed.”
But Kossover said the three people have had their careers stymied by criminal convictions that happened long ago.
A provision of the state’s Raise the Age law allows individuals convicted of certain crimes to clear the record of the crime.
In announcing the legislation, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said: “Law-abiding New Yorkers should not be forever branded with the stigma of a nonviolent criminal conviction when they have turned their lives around.”
To be eligible, an individual must have no convictions on their record for at least 10 years and have no charges pending.
Records cannot be sealed for convictions of sex crimes or any offense requiring registration as a sex offender; child pornography; murder, manslaughter and other homicide charges; or any Class A or violent felony.
For each individual, the court can seal one felony conviction, two misdemeanor convictions, or one felony and one misdemeanor conviction.
Once a record has been sealed, Kossover said, the individual will legally be able to answer “no” if asked if they’ve ever been convicted of a felony.
Kossover said Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright will have 45 days from the date the petitions are filed to weigh in on the requests.
Following that response, a judge will consider each application and make a determination about whether to seal the records.
Kossover said he is optimistic a judge will ultimately agree to seal the records of conviction in the three current cases.
“These are all, in my opinion, very meritorious applications,” he said.
Kossover said he expects that as the public becomes more aware of the provisions, others will come forward and ask that their records be sealed, too.
He said that while the three applications he has submitted were for private clients who contacted him, he also will consider clients he represented as public defender and attempt to contact those who would qualify.
“If we can figure out ...how to determine which former clients would be eligible for this type of sealing, I would welcome the opporunity to reach out and let them know, as long as they’ve stayed out of trouble, [that] the Public Defender’s Office would file the application on their behalf,” he said.