LAX Courthouse, Petition to Seal Prostitution Arrest Granted
In 2016, our client was arrested for solicitation of prostitution (Penal Code § 647(b)) along Century Boulevard near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). At the time, she was 25 years old. She was at one of the lowest points in her life. She had tried to become a model in Los Angeles, but that did not materialize and she found herself acting as an escort.
The next thing she knew, she was sitting in a police station after being arrested for acting as a prostitute with an undercover police officer police sting targeting prostitution near LAX.
She later appeared in the Airport Courthouse and was offered a deal wherein the case would be dismissed if she attended the Mary Magdalene Prostitution Recovery program.
She then completed the program and the judge assigned to her case dismissed the case.
Our client later moved to Rhode Island and began working for one of New England’s most well respected and largest real estate companies. She moved in with her parents and soon became the mother to a little girl.
As a real estate professional, she managed several large low income housing areas rented by her employer. However, she knew she probably could not move up to a higher level with a record for prostitution, even if it was seven years earlier and she was never convicted. The stigma of having this record was embarrassing and she knew her employer would not want to promote someone who had such a history. She was embarrassed about this enough as it was.
She therefore called Greg Hill & Associates because she had read about expungement. She asked about expungement and Greg told her expungement really did not apply to her case because she was never convicted.
Instead, Greg explained, she could petition the judge to request an order to seal the arrest report and the case file under Penal Code §§ 851.91 and 851.92, which would mean the arrest record and the court file would be destroyed and the record of the arrest and the case being filed would be deleted or removed from her criminal history.
Greg then explained the process, which included serving the law enforcement agency which made the arrest. For her, this was the Pacific Division of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Greg also explained how the petition did not apply to certain offenses, such as domestic violence, elder abuse or child abuse wherein the petitioner had a pattern of such arrests that later resulted in dismissed cases or unfiled cases.
Greg explained further that if the petition is granted, and he read right from the Penal Code section, 851.92(b)(5), “Arrest records, police investigative reports, and court records that are sealed under this section shall not be disclosed to any person or entity except the person whose arrest was sealed or a criminal justice agency.”
The client agreed that this is what she needed and retained Greg Hill & Associates to prepare, file and serve the petition to seal.
Our office then prepared the petition to seal, along with a short memorandum of points and authorities with a declaration and verification for the client to sign, as is required by the statute as part of the petition. The declaration and petition from the client explained why she wanted to seal her arrest record of this case and the court file, explaining her new career in real estate in Rhode Island and her desire to earn more to move out from her parents’ home with her now three-year old daughter.
We then filed the petition and served the Airport Courthouse District Attorney as well as the Pacific Division of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The court then set a hearing date for the petition and assigned the petition to a new judge at the Airport (LAX) courthouse.
Greg then attended the hearing on the petition in the Airport Courthouse. The judge assigned to the petition granted the petition. The district attorney assigned to the case did not oppose the petition.
The client was extremely happy with this result.
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