Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer BlogI plead guilty to a case and the prosecutor agreed to dismiss another charge, can I have the dismissed case expunged?
Many defendants face multiple cases out of a single arrest. For example, we see a lot of DWI cases where the defendant will also have marijuana possession or UCW (carrying a gun while DWI). Or a felony drug cases that also has a misdemeanor drug case out of the same arrest (e.g. meth and Xanax). It’s not unusual for the prosecutor to offer a plea bargain in which one case is dismissed and the defendant pleads guilty to another case. In the examples above we could expect an offer where the defendant pleads to the felony meth case, and a misdemeanor Xanax case is dismissed. That stuff happens all the time.
Most people expect that a dismissed case can be expunged. It makes sense right? You weren’t convicted, so it should be eligible to come off your record. But this is Texas so we are always looking for unique ways to screw defendants.
A recent Dallas Court of Appeals case, Texas Department of Public Safety v. J.A.M, held that a defendant can not expunge a case if they plead to ANY offense out of particular arrest. So if you have multiple cases arising from a single arrest, you can be put on probation for any of the offenses if you want to expunge the dismissed cases.