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Video Transcribed: What is a 1269 expungement in Oklahoma, and who is eligible for it? I’m Tulsa attorney James Wirth, and we’re about to talk about 1269 expungements. So a couple of years ago in Oklahoma, we had state question 780, and that, when it passed and became law, re-classified many crimes that were previously felonies as misdemeanors. But we still had a lot of people out there that were previously convicted of those crimes that have felony convictions. So it came later; House Bill 1269 allowed some relief to some of those people.
So first off, let’s talk about 780 and what it did. So one of the biggest things it did is that it changed possession of CDs, that’s a controlled and dangerous substance, essentially illegal narcotics, it changed all of those that were felonies to misdemeanors. So that’s the big one.
Another one though, grand larceny, used to be if it was above $500, it was grand larceny, rather than regular larceny. Now it’s $1,000. Similar, for knowingly concealing stolen property, taking gasoline from the pop was a felony; now it’s a misdemeanor. Larceny of merchandise, it’s got to be $1,000 now instead of $500 to be a felony.
Embezzlement similarly has changed. Uttering a forged instrument, bogus checks, bouncing a check, that’s gone up to $1,000 to be a felony, rather than $500. And many other crimes were changed as well that would previously be a felony that are now a misdemeanor.
So fast forward a little bit, and House Bill 1269 went into place, and what it provides is a new avenue to expungement for people who were previously convicted of crimes that are now misdemeanors.
So if you have a felony conviction on your record for a crime that would now be a misdemeanor under current law, what this says is, as long as 30 days has passed since completion of your sentence, or if you’re still in custody, you can file for a commutation, and once that’s granted, after 30 days has passed from granting of your commutation, then you’re eligible to get a complete section 18 expungement, and that’s the expungement that expunges both the court case and the arrest record.
So under section 19, that tells us once you get that type of expungement under Oklahoma law, those events never occurred, so it’s a complete expungement. So if you have a conviction for a felony that is now a misdemeanor under Oklahoma law, thanks to state question 780 or other changes in the law, then you can file now, once 30 days has gone by since completion of your sentence, to get it all sealed and erased from your record.
If you have any questions about whether you’re specifically eligible for that, or want to talk to an attorney about it, go to makelaweasy.com and we’ll see if we can help you out. Again, that web address is makelaweasy.com.
