Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Final Disposition and other questions

Let me begin by saying I am not an Indiana attorney. Hopefully a lawyer from that state will also answer your question, because any relief that might be available would have to come from an Indiana court. California courts have no jurisdiction over proceedings in other states.

Chances are that your husband is not going to be prosecuted. There is a good chance that any charges which could have been filed are now time-barred; an Indiana attorney might be able to give you an informed answer. But even if charges can still be brought, if there wasn't enough evidence two years ago to support charges then there probably isn't enough now, either.

You ask about clearing your husband's record, but it sounds like there isn't much on his record to worry about. He has not been convicted so he has no criminal record. Unless the proesecutors have filed charges, a background check will not reveal an outstanding warrant or pending charges.

Most likely, all he has on his record is an arrest. In California, at least, arrest records are not made public. Only law enforcement and courts have access to such information. The reason is that innocent people are arrested relatively often, and the government recognizes that information about a mistaken arrest could taint the arrestee's reputation. All an arrest shows is that a police officer considered the arrestee a criminal suspect; it is insufficient to suggest actual guilt.

There is probably nothing your husband can do about his arrest record. After all, the information it contains is accurate -- he really was arrested. Since the records will not be publicly accessible and since they don't say he committed any crime, they should not be a problem.