IN THE MATTER OF THE EXPUNGEMENT PETITION OF J.B. A-1564-11T2

IN THE MATTER OF THE EXPUNGEMENT PETITION OF J.B.

 A-1564-11T2

In this appeal from the denial of a petition to expunge juvenile adjudications and an adult conviction, we construe the 1980 statute permitting expungement of juvenile adjudications.  L. 1980, c.  163, codified at N.J.S.A. 2C:52-4.1.  We conclude the trial court misinterpreted the unnumbered paragraph in N.J.S.A. 2C:52-4.1(a), "For purposes of expungement, any act which resulted in a juvenile being adjudged a delinquent shall be classified as if that act had been committed by an adult." In view of the legislative history of the 1980 statute, and canons of statutory construction, we construe the quoted

sentence to apply only to applications to expunge juvenile  adjudications under N.J.S.A. 2C:52-4.1(a).  The 1980 law was intended to allow expungement of juvenile adjudications, which was not otherwise permitted; there was no evidence the Legislature intended to make expungement of adult convictions more difficult by treating juvenile adjudications as if they were adult convictions.

Applying our reading of the statute, petitioner was entitled to expungement of his entire record of multiple juvenile adjudications under N.J.S.A. 2C:52-4.1(b).  Also, although the court mistakenly applied the quoted sentence to render petitioner's juvenile adjudications equivalent to adult convictions, the court correctly denied the petitioner to expunge the adult conviction because it was filed less than ten years after completion of the sentence, N.J.S.A. 2C:52-2(a), and petitioner failed to establish that expungement after just five years was "in the public interest," N.J.S.A. 2C:52-2(a)(2). 06-21-12