All You Need Is Love

The Iowa Supreme Court denied relief to a John Doe seeking expungement of records

Sixty years ago, the Beatles released one of the finest rock albums ever made. See The Beatles, Rubber Soul (EMI 1965). Three of its songs were titled, “You Won’t See Me,” “Nowhere Man,” and “I’m Looking Through You.” Perhaps they didn’t anticipate the internet.

In today’s internet age, we are often more visible than we want to be. This certiorari action is brought by an individual who received two parole violation reports, one in late 2006 and the other in early 2007, based in whole or in part on an arrest for driving while barred. Each report was assigned a separate, new FECR case number that can be seen on Iowa Courts Online. However, the driving while barred charge was dismissed and expunged, and the individual contends that the parole violation reports should also be expunged pursuant to Iowa Code section 901C.2(1) (2023). The district court denied relief, and we granted a writ of certiorari to review the matter.

We conclude that relief is not available under section 901C.2(1). This part of the expungement statute applies to “criminal cases” that have been “dismissed.” Id. § 901C.2(1)(a)(1), (7). The parole violation reports were administrative matters, not criminal cases, and they were not dismissed but rather routed to the administrative system of parole.

In the alternative, the individual asks that the two FECR (felony) case numbers be changed to avoid leaving the misimpression that he was charged with two separate felonies in late 2006 and early 2007. We acknowledge the irony in taking the position that expungement isn’t available because the matters aren’t criminal cases, while simultaneously declining to modify their criminal  case coding. Yet, we cannot find that the failure to modify those codes is illegal or otherwise a basis for certiorari relief.

(Mike Frisch)