Lawmakers approve first-time DUI expungement
Bills need minor tweaks before going to Whitmer
Lawmakers on Wednesday approved several bills that would further expand eligibility for expungement in Michigan, allowing for people with first-time drunken driving convictions to get their record cleared and creating a process for automatic expungement of certain juvenile offenses.
The Legislature’s move to allow for expungement of first-time offenses for operating while intoxicated comes after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed sweeping changes to expungement into law in October. Among other reform, that legislation extended eligibility for expungement to most traffic offenses but excluded drunken driving.
Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, who introduced the bill approved by the state House on Wednesday, said the legislative package signed into law earlier this fall leaves out an “enormous” number of people who face discrimination when pursuing jobs and other opportunities because of an old drunken driving offense.
Across the Upper Peninsula — where his district is located — and elsewhere, he said too many people are denied jobs because of a “stupid mistake.”
“If we’re offering expungements to other crimes ... I’m not sure why those who have an alcohol-related offense should be treated as the lepers in our society,” McBroom said during a committee hearing earlier this month.
The legislation would take effect in April. It would not permit expungement of subsequent drunken driving offenses or convictions involving injury or death. Operating while intoxicated convictions could not be cleared through an automatic process that will be created by the reform signed into law in October. Instead, someone with one DUI conviction would need to file an application for a judge to decide whether to grant expungement.
Beginning in April, the waiting period to apply for expungement will range from three to seven years after a person’s monitoring by the criminal justice system ends, depending on the type of convictions. Law enforcement retains access to expunged conviction records.
In 2019, the state reported that 31,235 people were convicted of offenses related to drunken or drugged driving, according to an annual audit.
John Cooper, executive director of Safe and Just Michigan, said it’s “reasonable” that people with one drunken driving conviction from years ago should be given a shot at expungement.
“We need to give people a path to full participation in the community, full participation in the economy,” he said during a committee hearing earlier this month.
The Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association and the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police opposed the bill.
“Prosecutors are concerned about the underlying dynamics of drunk driving and therefore couldn’t philosophically support the policy,” Matt Wiese, president of the prosecutors association, said in a statement.
Bills related to juvenile court records
would mimic the new legislation on expungement for adult criminal records.
The legislative package, introduced by Sens. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, and Peter Lucido, R-Shelby Township, would create a process to automatically set aside certain offenses for youth who stay out of trouble and seal juvenile court records from public view.
Currently, people with juvenile records must wait until they are at least 18 to apply for expungement. A bill passed Wednesday would remove the age requirement for eligibility and allow people to apply for expungement one year after their court supervision ends. The bill would also allow traffic offenses to be set aside, which aren’t eligible under the current juvenile expungement law.
Automatic expungement without an application would kick in two years after the end of a juvenile’s court supervision, or when they turn 18, whichever happens later.
Most assaultive crimes would not be eligible for automatic expungement. The following offenses would be excluded: crimes that if committed by an adult would carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, offenses for which the juvenile is tried as an adult, and other crimes such as arson, carjacking, manslaughter and stalking.
Jason Smith, policy director at the Michigan Center for Youth Justice, said the changes would allow young people to move on with their lives after they’ve been held accountable for their actions. The nonprofit has heard from adults who said their juvenile records followed them as they applied for graduate school and professional licenses.
Automatic expungement would remove barriers, Smith said.
“It’s another example of Michigan doing right by kids and focusing on making youth justice reforms a priority just like adults who benefit from the Clean Slate legislation that passed earlier this year,” he said. “Young people will have the opportunity to move past mistakes they made as kids and successfully transition to adulthood and have better chances of getting jobs, going on to college, acquiring professional licenses.”
Another bill would seal juvenile court records from the public beginning Jan. 1. Records would be available only to people with a “legitimate interest,” which would include the juvenile’s parent or guardian, the juvenile’s attorney, law enforcement, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and agencies that place children in homes for foster care or adoption.
A 2016 report by the Juvenile Law Center, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that advocates for youth involved in the justice system, said Michigan is among seven states where all juvenile records are public.
Rep. Mike Mueller, R-Linden, spoke out against the bills, referencing his experiences as a law enforcement officer. He said the proposed legislation “lessens accountability for committing crimes” and doesn’t take victims into account.
“When are we gonna start looking out for victims and holding people accountable instead of just pushing them down the street?” he said on the House floor.
In a rebuttal, Rep. Tenisha Yancey, D-Harper Woods, said Mueller’s suggestion that youth should choose to stay out of trouble is “easier said than done” when young people don’t have the proper tools and education.
Yancey, a former prosecuting attorney in juvenile court, told legislators that voting down the bills after the expansion of expungement eligibility approved in the fall would have signaled that they hold children more accountable than adults.
“We are going to allow children to have a clean slate to be able to get employment, to be able to get educated,” she said.
By Wednesday evening, the chambers agreed in large part to the substantive parts of the bills, but needed to agree on minor tweaks before the bills could be sent to Whitmer’s desk.