New Jersey State Police Superintendent Hit with Class Action Over Alleged Failure to Clear Expunged Records [UPDATE]

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A proposed class action against the superintendent of the New Jersey State Police (NJSP), Colonel Patrick J. Callahan, claims the agency has failed to timely process tens of thousands of court orders requiring it to clear the criminal histories of individuals who obtained expungements.

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The 38-page case explains that the NJSP, through its Expungement Unit in West Trenton, New Jersey, is the state agency in charge of sealing and impounding the records of formerly convicted individuals who have successfully petitioned for expungement before the Superior Court. The NJSP is also responsible for disseminating criminal records in response to background checks, the lawsuit says.

However, the complaint relays, information provided by the NJSP in December 2022 in response to an Open Public Records Act request has revealed that the agency has a backlog of more than 46,000 unprocessed expungement orders, some of which have languished for over a year.

“Because of this delay, criminal records that should have been expunged have instead been repeatedly shared with employers and other entities, throughout the State and in other jurisdictions, by the NJSP, for months after petitioners’ expungement orders were granted and received by the agency,” the filing stresses.

As a result, successful expungement petitioners have been denied employment or are reluctant to submit job and license applications out of fear that their expunged criminal history will be improperly disclosed during background checks, the case shares.

According to the lawsuit, New Jersey law has since 1931 afforded formerly convicted individuals the chance to seek expungement of their criminal history. The statute has been amended over the years to expand opportunities for expungement, thereby allowing more residents to reintegrate into society, the suit says.

“These repeated expansions are in keeping with the expungement statute’s primary purpose: to provide a right of relief to formerly convicted individuals who have demonstrated their commitment to a law-abiding life,” the complaint states.

The filing argues that by failing to promptly clear criminal records, the NJSP superintendent has deprived successful expungement petitioners of this right and undermined the statute’s goals.

One of the suit’s six plaintiffs, a New Jersey resident who has been waiting to have his expungement order processed for over 20 months, says he has been unable to pursue volunteer coaching positions for his son’s youth sports teams because the NJSP wrongly exposed his distant criminal past during a background check. 

After struggling for years with substance abuse issues, the man has worked to remain sober since he was first incarcerated over 15 years ago, the complaint says. Since his release, the plaintiff has had no convictions or arrests, has worked as a counselor for people recovering from addiction and has started a family, the filing shares.

“[The plaintiff] is frustrated that his distant past continues to impede his life’s prospects after so many years have passed since his convictions, after his substantial and successful efforts to recover from his addiction, and after his expungement has already been granted by the Court,” the case reads. “He is pursuing this litigation to finally be given the ‘clean slate’ to which he is statutorily entitled.”

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone who has been granted orders of expungement but whose records have not been sealed by the NJSP within a reasonable time.

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