Metropolitan Court, Wet Reckless Conviction Expunged

In 2017, our client, then age 29, was convicted of violating Vehicle Code § 23103 pursuant to Vehicle Code § 23103.5, also known as a “wet reckless.”

At the time, he was working in marketing for a technology company in Irvine.  His arrest was by the CHP along the 110 Freeway.  The client used a public defender to represent him.

Pursuant to the plea bargain, he was then was placed on three years of summary (or informal) probation, with an obligation to pay a court fine of $300, plus penalties and assessments (for a total of $1,560) and he had to enroll in and complete the three-month alcohol awareness program called the AB 541 program.

In 2020, his probation ended with the passage of time.

In 2021, he enrolled in the U.S.C. Marshall School of Business as a full-time student and found that his conviction was holding him back from valuable internships, which meant he was also barred from full-time jobs upon graduation without such an internship.

The client then called Greg Hill & Associates and spoke with Greg Hill about his situation and his frustration.  He said he had read about expungement and wanted to know if it could be done with his conviction for a “wet reckless.”

Greg answered him that yes, it can be requested, but he should know that the judge actually does have discretion to deny expungement for a DUI conviction, as well as a wet reckless.  Penal Code sections 1203.4(c)(1) and (c)(2) allow a judge to deny relief if one is convicted of certain offenses listed under Vehicle Code § 12810(a) to (e).  DUI and a wet reckless are listed under § 12810(a) to (e).  However, section 1203.4(c)(2) further states that the judge many exercise his or her discretion and act in the interests of justice nonetheless to grant expungement.  Greg commented that he had only seen one judge in Los Angeles County exercise such discretion to deny expungement of a DUI and only one judge in Orange County do this.

Greg then explained the process of the petition for dismissal and how long it generally took.

Greg also explained that expungement does not erase or delete the record of the arrest or the fact that a criminal case was filed against our client, but it does change the last plea in the case back to the original “not guilty” plea and the judge does order the case dismissed.

More importantly, expungement allows a person the legal right to state on most employment questionnaires that he or she was never convicted of the crime at issue.  Greg then went through the exceptions to this general right.

The client then hired Greg Hill & Associates and our firm got to work on his petition, which included a short points and authorities to supplement the CR-180 judicial council form, as well as a declaration from our client, now 35 years old, explaining why he sought expungement.  The declaration from our client included color copies of several of his degrees he obtained at various local community colleges in a variety of things, as our client clearly enjoyed learning and was ambitious.

Our office then filed and served the petition at the Metropolitan courthouse.  We served the petition on the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office on the fifth floor of the Metropolitan Courthouse.

Our office also paid the $120 filing fee with the Los Angeles Superior Court that is required for filing a petition for dismissal (“expungement”).

The court then notified our office of the judge assigned, the hearing date and the department.  Greg Hill then appeared on the client’s behalf (he stayed in class at U.S.C.) and the judge granted the petition.

The client was very happy with this result, knowing he was now on equal footing with his fellow students at U.S.C. and more confident that all the tuition he was paying for such a prestigious degree would not be stigmatized by his conviction for a “wet reckless” many years earlier.