State v. M.D.T., A11–1285.

• Decision Date: 22 May 2013
• Docket Number: No. A11–1285.,A11–1285.
• Citation: 831 N.W.2d 276
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Appellant, v. M.D.T., Respondent.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

831 N.W.2d 276

STATE of Minnesota, Appellant,

v.M.D.T., Respondent.

No. A11–1285.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

May 22, 2013.

Syllabus by the Court

The district court exceeded the scope of its inherent authority to expunge the respondent's criminal records held in the executive branch because expungement is not necessary to the performance of a unique judicial function.

Lori Swanson, Attorney General, Saint Paul, MN; and Kathleen A. Kusz, Nobles County Attorney, Kimberly S. Pehrson, Travis J. Smith, Assistant Nobles County

Attorneys, Worthington, MN, for appellant.

Daniel A. Birkholz, Jacob Birkholz, Birkholz Law, LLC, Saint James, MN, for respondent.

David P. Swenson, Katherine S. Barrett Wiik, Adam Welle, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP, and Emily Baxter, Council on Crime and Justice, Minneapolis, MN, for amici curiae Council on Crime and Justice, Legal Rights Center, Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans, Minnesota Legal Services Coalition, Minnesota State Public Defender, Minnesota Restorative Services Coalition, National Alliance on Mental Illness of Minnesota, Regional Native Public Defense Corporation, Volunteer Lawyers Network, and William Mitchell Law Clinic.

OPINION

GILDEA, Chief Justice.

This case arises from respondent M.D.T.'s petition to expunge records relating to her aggravated forgery conviction. The district court granted M.D.T.'s request and ordered “[a]ll official records” to “be sealed and their existence ... be disclosed only by court order.” The court of appeals affirmed the district court. State v. M.D.T., 815 N.W.2d 628 (Minn.App.2012). Because we conclude that the district court did not have inherent authority to expunge M.D.T.'s records held in the executive branch, we reverse that part of the court of appeals' decision.

On February 7, 2006, police arrested M.D.T. for presenting an altered prescription to a Shopko pharmacy. M.D.T. presented a prescription for Robitussin with codeine—a controlled substance—that was altered to increase the prescribed amount from 200 to 400 milliliters. In her statement to police, M.D.T. admitted that she had altered the prescription and said that she did so because she “did not have enough money to go back to the doctor if the medicine did not work.”

The State subsequently charged M.D.T. with two counts of aggravated forgery in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.625, subd. 1(1) (2012) (“making or altering”), and Minn.Stat. § 609.625, subds. 1(1), 3 (2012) (“uttering or possessing”), and one count of controlled substance crime in the fifth degree in violation of Minn.Stat. § 152.025, subds. 2(2)(i), 3(a) (2008) ( “procurement by fraud”). M.D.T. entered an Alford plea ¹ to the aggravated forgery by “uttering or possessing” count. In January 2007, the district court convicted M.D.T. of aggravated forgery pursuant to her plea, and stayed the imposition of M.D.T.'s sentence subject to several conditions. The conditions included that M.D.T. complete three years of supervised probation and pay an $879 fine. In February 2008, M.D.T. was discharged early from probation and $600 of her fine was forgiven.

Approximately seven months after she was discharged from probation, M.D.T. filed a petition for expungement of her criminal record. M.D.T. sought expungement because she wanted to “move on with [her] life,” “go to college,” and “start [a] career.” M.D.T. claimed her record precluded her from following “through with [her] career in business management in accounting.” The district court denied M.D.T.'s petition.

On January 31, 2011, M.D.T. filed a second petition for expungement. M.D.T. sought expungement because her conviction was impeding her “lifelong dream of becoming an accountant.” M.D.T. argued she was qualified for expungement because she had been rehabilitated and the benefit of expunging her record outweighed any disadvantage to the public and the court. The petition detailed M.D.T.'s employment history, career plans, personal history, and education. The petition also noted that M.D.T. had no convictions other than the aggravated forgery conviction.

In addition to M.D.T.'s petition and the materials she submitted, the district court received a letter from the Director of Rock Nobles Community Corrections, indicating that the agency was not “opposed to the expungement of this case.” The Nobles County Attorney, however, opposed the petition.

The district court granted M.D.T.'s motion to expunge her criminal records. The court found “clear and convincing evidence that sealing [M.D.T.'s] record would yield a benefit ... commensurate with the disadvantages to the public.” The court noted that precedent regarding expungement of executive branch records is “unclear,” and, relying on three unpublished cases from the court of appeals, utilized a “more expansive view of the Court's inherent judicial authority.” Citing State v. S.L.H., 755 N.W.2d 271 (Minn.2008), and State v. C.A., 304 N.W.2d 353 (Minn.1981), the district court reasoned that M.D.T.'s “one-time mistake of altering a minor cold medicine prescription,” in light of her rehabilitative efforts, did not justify hindering M.D.T.'s employment options for 15 years. As such, the court sealed “[a]ll official records held by” the Nobles County District Court, Sheriff, and County Attorney; Worthington City Police Department and City Attorney; Minnesota Attorney General's Office; Minnesota Department of Corrections; Probation/Court Services Department; and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (“BCA”).

The State appealed, and the court of appeals affirmed. M.D.T., 815 N.W.2d 628. The court of appeals held that the district court had the inherent authority to expunge M.D.T.'s records. Id. at 639. The court also held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by ordering the expungement of M.D.T.'s criminal records “generated and held by the judicial branch and the sealing of [the] records maintained by the executive branch.” Id. The court concluded that expungement of M.D.T.'s records implicated the judiciary's fundamental function of maintaining and disseminating criminal records that were sealed by the judicial branch. Id. We granted the State's petition for review.

We review the lower court's decision on whether to expunge criminal records “under an abuse of discretion standard.” State v. Ambaye, 616 N.W.2d 256, 261 (Minn.2000). But the question presented in this case—whether the district court exceeded the scope of its inherent authority to expunge criminal records—is a question of law. State v. Chauvin, 723 N.W.2d 20, 23 (Minn.2006). We review questions of law de novo. Modrow v. JP Foodservice, Inc., 656 N.W.2d 389, 393 (Minn.2003).

I.

There are two bases for expungement of criminal records in Minnesota: Minn.Stat. ch. 609A (2012) and the judiciary's inherent authority. S.L.H., 755 N.W.2d at 274. M.D.T. does not claim she is entitled to statutory expungement; she argues instead that the district court possessed inherent authority to expunge her criminal records. Accordingly, the only question in this case involves inherent authority.

The parties dispute whether the district court exceeded the scope of its inherent authority when it expunged “all official records” of M.D.T.'s conviction.² The State argues that the district court exceeded its inherent authority when it expunged M.D.T.'s criminal records held in the executive branch. M.D.T. contends that, because the district court expunged her records held by the judicial branch, the district court properly exercised its inherent authority by expunging executive branch records to “effectuate a meaningful remedy.” The amici argue that public policy weighs in favor of allowing courts to provide a “complete expungement remedy in appropriate circumstances.”

The judiciary's inherent power “governs that which is essential to the existence, dignity, and function of a court because it is a court.” In re Clerk of Lyon Cnty. Courts' Comp., 308 Minn. 172, 176, 241 N.W.2d 781, 784 (1976). The origin of judicial power in Minnesota is our state constitution. Minn. Const. art. VI, § 1 (vesting “[t]he judicial power of the state” in the “supreme court, a court of appeals, if established by the legislature, a district court and such other courts ... as the legislature may establish”). But “ ‘when the court came into existence it came with inherent powers.’ ” State by Archabal v. Cnty. of Hennepin, 505 N.W.2d 294, 298 n. 6 (Minn.1993) (quoting In re Greathouse, 189 Minn. 51, 55, 248 N.W. 735, 737 (1933)). The inherent power derives from the judiciary's “right to protect itself, to enable it to administer justice whether any previous form of remedy has been granted or not.” In re Greathouse, 189 Minn. at 55, 248 N.W. at 737.

In order to determine whether inherent authority exists, we ask “whether the relief requested by the court or aggrieved party is necessary to the performance of the judicial function as contemplated in our state constitution.” Clerk of Lyon Cnty. Courts' Comp., 308 Minn. at 181, 241 N.W.2d at 786. We apply that test “with due consideration” for the other branches of government and do not rely on inherent authority to serve the “relative needs or ... wants” of the judicial branch. Id. at 181–82, 241 N.W.2d at 986. We have also recognized that courts must be mindful not to “use judicial authority to enforce or restrain acts which lie within the executive and legislative jurisdictions.” Granada Indep. Sch. Dist. No. 455 v. Mattheis, 284 Minn. 174, 180, 170 N.W.2d 88, 91 (1969). And when a question arises regarding the scope of the judiciary's inherent authority, courts must “resolve all reasonable doubts in favor of a co-ordinate branch.” Gollnik v. Mengel, 112 Minn. 349, 350–51, 128 N.W. 292, 292 (1910).

In the area of expungement, we have held that the judiciary may use its inherent authority to expunge criminal records where “the petitioner's constitutional rights may be seriously...