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Sunday, February 18, 2007
Ind. Courts - "Businessman's criminal rap sheet erased in legal deal"
Ruth Ann Krause of the Gary Post Tribune reports today that a trial court judge has wiped out cases files and records of prior convictions of a Crown Point businessman. Some quotes from the lengthy story:
Crown Point businessman Dominic Pitzel started 2007 with a clean slate.Pitzel's three criminal convictions and public records disappeared with the signature of Lake Superior Court Judge Diane Ross Boswell on Jan. 2.
The deal is unprecedented, say lawyers with decades of criminal law experience who were contacted for this story.
It was arranged between a special prosecutor appointed by a staff member of Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter's office, who is said to be a friend of Pitzel's, and defense attorney Marc Laterzo. * * *
Since January, case files have been destroyed that would show the legal basis for Pitzel's post-conviction relief on convictions for burglary, theft and pointing a firearm dating back 20 to 30 years.
Boswell ordered the public records expunged -- including those kept in the Indiana State Police Department Central Repository in Indianapolis, the National Crime Information Center in Clarksburg, W.Va., and "other agencies maintaining records of an individual's criminal convictions."
The clerk's office destroyed two of the files. The Post-Tribune was denied access to a third file, which was being purged of information related to Pitzel.
In effect, the convictions never happened, despite Pitzel pleading guilty in two of the cases and convicted for burglary by a criminal court jury in the third case. He received a four-year prison sentence in the burglary case.
Indiana law allows for arrest records to be expunged under limited circumstances.
Had Boswell not ordered the records expunged, the documents would have been maintained for 55 years after the case was closed, according to Indiana Supreme Court rules governing retention of felony case files.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 18, 2007 10:29 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts