Grand Isle, Orange, and Essex Counties hold expungement clinic

GRAND ISLE, Vt. (WCAX) - An expungement clinic is underway Friday for people who have been charged with low-level crimes in Grand Isle, Orange, and Essex Counties.

The Vermont Attorney General’s office and state’s attorneys say people can get certain convictions and other low-level offenses removed from their records. It will be happening from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Friday by appointment. Under Vermont law, many misdemeanors, 14 different felony offenses, and all dismissed charges can be expunged.

Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan says this gives Vermonters a chance at a fresh start. “It gives them an opportunity to get a job, oftentimes a better job, a high paying job, to provide for their family, to be engaged in their community. Expungements erase old criminal convictions, those convictions that no longer have an impact on public safety. And when people pay their debt back to society, they should be let in,” he said.

He says those not able to participate in the clinic are still able to go to their local courthouse and fill out the paperwork.