# State Ex Rel. Indiana State Police v. Arnold

> Indiana Supreme Court · May 19, 2009 · 906 N.E.2d 167

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9505008

## Case

- **Full name:** STATE of Indiana Ex Rel. the INDIANA STATE POLICE, Appellant (Respondent Below), v. Chad ARNOLD, Appellee (Petitioner Below)
- **Court:** Indiana Supreme Court
- **Decided:** May 19, 2009
- **Citations:** 906 N.E.2d 167; 2009 Ind. LEXIS 463; 2009 WL 1409481
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Shepard
- **Judges:** Boehm, Dickson, Rucker, Shepard, Sullivan
- **Cited by:** 4 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9505008

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- stating that the primary goal of statutory construction is to ascertain and effect the intent of the legislature
- holding trial court’s discretion to summarily deny such a petition is “almost unfettered”

## Opinion text

SHEPARD, C.J.,
dissenting.
I think the Court has worked too hard at parsing the expungement statute. The legislature's policy seems apparent enough. When someone petitions to expunge an arrest and the prosecutor stands silent, the trial court shall grant the ex-pungement. When the State believes it would be harmful to the public's interest to expunge and thus objects, the court must decline to expunge where the record re-fleets multiple arrests for real crimes.
While the expungement statute might produce an occasional anomaly, as the Court speculates, there is nothing anomalous about the case before us. Besides his arrest for armed robbery, Arnold has been arrested for drunk driving four times, convicted twice, and violated probation. I conclude that the General Assembly has prohibited expungement under such circumstances.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9505008. Public record. Not legal advice.