State v. Lebedev, COA23-249, ___ N.C. App. ___ (Nov. 7, 2023)

In this Orange County case, defendant appealed (1) three orders by the Orange County District Court denying his petition to expunge traffic misdemeanors, and (2) the order of the Orange County Superior Court denying his petition for writ of certiorari. The Court of Appeals affirmed the orders of the district court and superior court.   

Between April of 2009 and August of 2011, defendant was charged with speeding three separate times in three unrelated incidents, and each time he pleaded to a lesser-included offense. In November of 2022, defendant filed three separate expungement petitions with the district court, seeking expunction as to each of the traffic charges. The district court denied the petitions because defendant was not charged with “multiple offenses” as required by G.S. 15A-146. Defendant then petitioned for a writ of certiorari from the superior court, which was also denied. 

The Court of Appeals noted that defendant’s argument hinged on the statutory interpretation of G.S. 15A-146, citing the relevant language from subsection (a1): “[i]f a person is charged with multiple offenses and any charges are dismissed, then that person or the district attorney may petition to have each of the dismissed charges expunged.” Slip Op. at 4. The court explained that while the statute did not define what constituted a “dismissal,” it was a common word with an unambiguous meaning. Although the court determined no charges were dismissed in this matter, defendant argued that “the legislature nonetheless intended defendants to be able to petition to expunge misdemeanor charges that did not ultimately result in a conviction.” Id. at 5. The court found this interpretation to be “imaginative” but ultimately flawed, as “it incorrectly conflates the concept of pleading down to a lesser included offense with that of an actual dismissal.” Id. at 6. Having established that amending the charge to reflect a lesser-included offense did not represent dismissal under G.S. 15A-146, the court affirmed the denial of defendant’s various petitions as without merit.