Petty Misdemeanor in Minnesota

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Minnesota.

I was recently charged with a drug paraphernalia citation, over spring break, which is a petty misdemeanor. In the state of Minnesota a petty misdemeanor is considered a non-crime, which I cannot be sentenced to jail time and cannot receive a fine of more than $300($135 in this case.) Either way this worries me because of the ramifications involved in looking for employment, if or when they do a background check. What I'm wondering is, how I would go about requesting that this get expunged from my record without having to show up at the court date? The court is hours away from my college where my hometown is.


Random information: authorities are jerks, threatened me with a felony(I could not have received a felony seeing as I possessed less than 1.5 ounces, it was just residue, and could only receive a petty misdemeanor) and seemed to assume that I was closely associated with a drug trafficking chain, and threatened me with some kind of arrest for not helping them. I know it is within their legal rights to lie to get information, but they're still jerks.

Edit: Didn't mean to call them "jerks." That was suppose to be a light-hearted segway into some more than likely non-related additional information. Re-reading it now, it looks childish and i can't seem to find the edit button again after logging out.

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Quoting Arche812

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What I'm wondering is, how I would go about requesting that this get expunged from my record without having to show up at the court date? The court is hours away from my college where my hometown is.

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Expungement only occurs if your state has statutes on the books, a certain time has passed since your conviction, or if found innocent, and you meet the qualifications of that statue.

No matter the circumstance, you MUST appear in court and face the judge! You don't, an arrest warrant is issued for your arrest. If you don't have a lawyer, get one like yesterday!

Quote:

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Quoting M'sta Mikey

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Expungement only occurs if your state has statutes on the books, a certain time has passed since your conviction, or if found innocent, and you meet the qualifications of that statue.

No matter the circumstance, you MUST appear in court and face the judge! You don't, an arrest warrant is issued for your arrest. If you don't have a lawyer, get one like yesterday!

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I'm sorry I didn't clarify, I don't mean to skip the court date, but to simply pay the fine. Would paying the fine and pleaing guilty make it harder to get explunged later on? Or should I just try to request explungement after a period of time at the initial court date?

You cannot request an expungement at the initial court date, please re-read my original post! If you plead guilty, expungment, even if your state has statutes for such, might be non-existent based on your guilty plea.

Consult with an attorney before you do anything in court.