Necaise v. Virginia
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Appellee Shawn Necaise was arrested on warrants charging felonious disregard of a police officer's signal to stop, and feloniously assaulting an officer engaged in public duties. The court records show the charges were reduced to misdemeanors. Represented by counsel, Appellee plead guilty to both charges; the Commonwealth took nolle prosequi to other pending misdemeanors. The court accepted the pleas, found him guilty of both, and imposed fines and suspended jail time. Two years later, Appellee filed a petition in the circuit court seeking expungement of all police and court records pertaining to the two felony charges and the misdemeanors that had been dismissed nolle prosequi. The court ordered the expungement with regard to the charges disposed of by nolle prosequi, but denied the expungement pertaining to the two felonies. On appeal, the Supreme Court reasoned that because the misdemeanors to which Appellee was convicted were lesser included offenses of the felonies with which he was originally charged, all of the elements of the offenses were subsumed within the felony charges and formed the sole bases for the misdemeanor convictions. "The record as it stands contains a true account of the events that actually occurred and creates no injustice to either party." The Court affirmed the judgment of the lower court.
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