232.150 Sealing of records.

1. a. In the case of an adjudication of delinquency, the court shall upon its own motion schedule a sealing of records hearing to be held two years after the date of the last official action, or the date the child becomes eighteen years of age, whichever is later. The court shall also schedule a sealing of records hearing upon application of a person who was the subject of a complaint or petition alleging delinquency that did not result in an adjudication. The court, after hearing, shall order the official juvenile court records in the case including those specified in sections 232.147, 232.149, 232.149A, 232.149B, and 915.25, sealed if the court finds all of the following:

(1) The person is eighteen years of age or older and two years have elapsed since the last official action in the person’s case.

(2) The person has not been subsequently convicted of a felony or an aggravated or serious misdemeanor or adjudicated a delinquent child for an act which if committed by an adult would be a felony, an aggravated misdemeanor, or a serious misdemeanor and no proceeding is pending seeking such conviction or adjudication.

(3) The person was not placed on youthful offender status, transferred back to district court after the youthful offender’s eighteenth birthday, and sentenced for the offense which precipitated the youthful offender placement.

(4) The person was not adjudicated delinquent on an offense involving a violation of section 321J.2.

b. If the person was adjudicated delinquent for an offense which if committed by an adult would be an aggravated misdemeanor or a felony, the court shall not order the records in the case sealed unless, upon application of the person or upon the court’s own motion and after hearing, the court finds that paragraph “a”, subparagraphs (1) and (2), apply and that the sealing is in the best interests of the person and the public.

c. If the person is required to pay monetary restitution to a victim due to a delinquent act and the restitution is unpaid, the records in the case may be sealed, but the name of the court, the title of the action, and the court’s file number shall remain unsealed as provided in section 910.10 and the restitution amount shall be a judgment and lien as provided in sections 910.7A, 910.8, 910.10, and 915.28 until the restitution is paid in full.

2. Reasonable notice of the hearing shall be given to the person who is the subject of the records named in the motion, the county attorney, and the agencies having custody of the records named in the application or motion.

3. Notice and copies of a sealing order shall be sent to each agency or person having custody or the records named therein.

4. On entry of a sealing order:

a. All agencies and persons having custody of records which are named therein, shall send such records to the court issuing the order. Maintenance or destruction of these records shall be prescribed by the state court administrator.

b. All index references to sealed records shall be deleted.

5. The sealed records shall no longer be deemed to exist as a matter of law, and the juvenile court and any other agency or person who received notice and a copy of the sealing order shall reply to an inquiry that no such records exist, except when such reply is made to an inquiry pursuant to subsection 6.

6. Inspection of sealed records and disclosure of their contents thereafter may be permitted only pursuant to an order of the court upon application of the person who is the subject of such records except that the court in its discretion may permit reports to be inspected by or their contents to be disclosed for research purposes to a person conducting bona fide research under whatever conditions the court deems proper.

[C79, 81, §232.150; 82 Acts, ch 1209, §18]

97 Acts, ch 126, §36; 2006 Acts, ch 1164, §3; 2014 Acts, ch 1105, §1; 2016 Acts, ch 1002, §14, 15, 17; 2018 Acts, ch 1153, §10

Referred to in §13B.4A, 216A.136, 229A.2, 232.55, 232.91, 232.147, 232.149, 232.149A, 232.149B, 232.151, 232C.4, 692.2, 692A.101, 692A.121

2016 amendments apply to juvenile delinquency proceedings which are pending or arise on or after July 1, 2016; 2016 Acts, ch 1002, §17

Subsection 4, paragraph a amended