Asked 7/12/2016 – Austin, TX

The criminal mischief A misdemeanor case was dismissed (due to pre-trial diversion), a fine was paid and a few hours of community service was done. There was never an arrest, just a notice in the mail to appear in court, because no one was even aware a crime was committed. However, the case is officially dismissed, but now the attorney is asking to come to the jail (which is in a different state) and RE-DO fingerprints because they are incomplete! But no one was ever arrested and never gave fingerprints in the first place! Should you have to go to the jail to give fingerprints even though you were never arrested? We plan to file a motion to have the whole file expunged. The attorney is saying you can’t expunge the record without fingerprints. This all seems a little weird to us and we are unsure what is going on. Can someone help?

Answer

Do you HAVE to give fingerprints to obtain an order of expunction? No. Is your attorney being thorough and attempting to insure all agencies remove any trace of your case? Yes. If you don’t trust your attorney, get another attorney but the fingerprint request is not “weird”. The fact that you were never fingerprinted at the outset of your case may make this request superfluous