Q: Can a disorderly conduct hurt my case and can it be removed from my record?
My friends mother had her son arrested for elderly abuse. His court appointed attorney said his mother does not want to go to trial and the DA wants to reduce it to a Class C assault. But that will not be removed from his record. He wants to either go to trial or have it reduced to a disorderly conduct charge. His lawyer also doesnt want to go to trial and said he would drop his case if thats what he wants to do. 1. Can he do that? he doesnt want to start all over with another attorney. 2. His mother filed a civil lawsuit for mental damages but never served him and in a few weeks theres a court hearing that the judge set up to dismiss the case since they filed but never followed through. would accepting disorderly conduct push this civil case to keep going forward? 3. Would disorderly conduct mean that he could not sue her for false claims?
A: I agree that the attorney can drop him and would further add that a condition of a civil claim would be that the criminal case was resolved in the defendant's favor... a plea to a different crime would probably undermine the claim. That said, even if everything goes perfectly for him I suspect the chances that he recovers more than he spends on a civil case like this are probably slim to none. Such cases are notoriously difficult so he should really talk to a civil attorney (or three) in addition to his criminal defense attorney before making any decisions about how to move forward.
A: The process for removing a case from your record is called Expunction and it requires that all the charges be dismissed. Entering a plea for a different or lower charge will disqualify a person from receiving an expunction.
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