New Jersey State Police Superintendent Hit with Class Action Over Alleged Failure to Clear Expunged Records [UPDATE]
Last Updated on May 31, 2024
A.A. et al. v. Callahan
Filed: October 23, 2023 ◆§ MER-L-002001-23
A class action alleges the New Jersey State Police has failed to timely process tens of thousands of court orders requiring it to clear the criminal histories of individuals who obtained expungements.
May 31, 2024 – New Jersey State Police Agrees to Streamline Expungement Process
In an effort to resolve the proposed class action lawsuit detailed on this page, the New Jersey State Police (NJSP) has agreed to promptly reduce its backlog of tens of thousands of unprocessed expungement orders.
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According to a joint statement released on May 9, 2024, the NJSP, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General and the state’s Office of the Public Defender have entered into an interim consent order to improve the NJSP’s procedures for processing outstanding judicial expungement orders.
As part of the consent order, the agency will swiftly process certain judicial expungement orders filed as Clean Slate or Recovery Court orders. This includes orders that expunge a municipal ordinance violation; orders that could have been filed as a regular expungement petition or as two regular expungement petitions; and orders that address multiple convictions, including some that could have been filed as regular expungement petitions.
The NJSP has also agreed to promptly process expungement orders that contain incomplete biographical information, as long as the available details are sufficient to identify the petitioners and their records. Moving forward, the agency will alert the appropriate county prosecutor’s office and the petitioner’s legal representation if their expungement order lacks the information needed to identify them.
Under the consent order, the NJSP has agreed to erase “all expungable information related to an underlying arrest or criminal complaint in its records, even if some aren’t included in the judicial expungement order.” Beyond that, the agency will expunge records in its possession “even in cases where the judicial expungement order directed NJSP to expunge records beyond its custody or control,” such as search engine results, certain restraining orders or DNA records.
“The lawsuit remains in mediation, and the parties continue to work together to identify additional improvements to the processing of expungement orders,” the statement reads.
ClassAction.org will update this page if and when more details are available, so be sure to check back often.
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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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