SJC says judges cannot expunge criminal records
Woman in case wrongly identified
Judges have no authority to purge criminal records, even when such records were issued by mistake, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday.
The ruling reversed a split decision by an Appeals Court panel that said keeping criminal records based on a mistake would be “unacceptably Kafkaesque.’’
At issue is a 2006 ruling by a Boston Municipal Court judge expunging the criminal record of a woman who was mistakenly identified by authorities as the driver of a car in a hit-and-run accident.
The car involved was registered to the woman, identified by the pseudonym Tina Boe, but was driven by a male when the accident occurred, according to the court’s description.
Police summoned Boe to a hearing to determine whether she would be criminally charged, but Boe was directed to the wrong hearing room, according to the ruling.
Police, noticing her absence from the correct hearing room, issued a criminal complaint against Boe and ordered her to appear in court at a later date.
Because of the case of mistaken identity, Judge Kathleen Koffey of Boston Municipal Court ordered the state commissioner of probation to expunge Boe’s record, which Koffey described as fair and just relief.
The commissioner of probation appealed, questioning the judge’s authority to make such an order, but was denied by the municipal judge and the Appeals Court.
The SJC ruled that judges lack legal authority to expunge records.
But the state’s top court said judges do have the power to seal records from public view.
