Judges: JOHN ASHCROFT
Filed Date: 11/8/1982
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
Dear Representative Pohrer:
This opinion is in response to your question asking the following:
Do the provisions of Sections
610.100 and610.105 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri prohibit compliance with Section66.200 (except for persons arrested and charged within thirty days and subsequently found guilty) or may there be compliance with Section66.200 within thirty days of an arrest and within the time a case is pending and before it is nolle prossed, dismissed or the Defendant found not guilty.
Section
If any person is arrested and not charged with an offense against the law within thirty days of his arrest, official records of the arrest and of any detention or confinement incident thereto shall thereafter be closed records except as provided in section
610.120 .
Section
If the person arrested is charged but the case is subsequently nolle prossed, dismissed, or the accused is found not guilty or imposition of sentence is suspended in the court in which the action is prosecuted, official records pertaining to the case shall thereafter be closed records when such case is finally terminated except as provided in section
610.120 .
Section
As stated in State v. Kraus, 530 S.W.2d (Mo. banc 1975):
[t]he primary rule of statutory construction is to ascertain the intent of the lawmakers from the language used, to give effect to that intent if possible, and to consider words used in a statute in their plain and ordinary meaning. [citation omitted]. Id. at 685.
Sections
The clear significance and intent of the word "thereafter" as used in the statutes is that the records in question are not closed until such time as one of these specified conditions are met. Thus, a municipality may transmit arrest records to the county law enforcement agency prior to those records becoming closed. However, once such arrest records are closed, they may be revealed "only to courts, administrative agencies, and law enforcement agencies for purposes of prosecution, litigation, sentencing, and parole consideration." Section
We further believe that the duty to close arrest records pursuant to Sections
CONCLUSION
It is the opinion of this office that a municipality in a first class county having a charter form of government may transmit arrest records to the county law enforcement agency pursuant to Section
The foregoing opinion, which I hereby approve, was prepared by my assistant, John M. Morris.
Very truly yours,
JOHN ASHCROFT Attorney General