My question involves criminal records for the state of: CA
I was wrongfully arrested under a very strange set of circumstances last year. The case was promptly dismissed at the preliminary hearing. The court then took the extremely rare step, based on a motion from my attorney, of issuing a Declaration of Innocence, pursuant to California Penal Code 851.8.
This order, much stronger than a typical sealing and/or expungement, signifies the defendant is factually innocent and thus orders all agencies involves (court, DOJ, LAPD, etc) to seal and destroy all records related to the arrest and prosecution. Further the statute states that upon entry of this order, the arrest is "deemed never to have occurred" and that those granted this relief "may answer accordingly to any question related to its occurrence." Unlike expungements or other "sealing" statutes within California, there are no caveats to this and it is unqualified. The arrest simply ceases to exist. The objective is to "wipe the slate clean" from somebody who is truly innocent and it is generally saved for cases of mistaken identity, etc.
At this point, the LAPD has deleted its record, along with the CA DOJ and the FBI. Fingerprint scans on both the federal and state levels verify this. Further, the court has deleted their record in totality.
Now that this is all behind me, I'm considering applying for law school and eventually the bar. My question is does this have to be disclosed on applications that ask about sealed arrests? On one hand, honesty is your friend. On the other hand, the strange set of facts surrounding the arrest might sully an otherwise stellar application. Not to mention that the entire point of this relief is to "wipe the slate clean" and give someone truly innocent a restoration to their pre-arrest status.
Any help would be amazing.

