(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court rules on a case involving charges being cleared from a person’s record. A man identified as John Doe was charged with domestic abuse assault and child endangerment in 2013. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and the child endangerment charge was dropped. Doe filed to have the charges removed from his record in 2023, but the district court ruled only the information misdemeanor charge could be expunged.

The Iowa Supreme Court says keeping the dismissed charge open still allows the public to draw inappropriate inferences, and keeps the stigma that the law was intended to remove. It says the case can be removed from the record without depriving the public of valuable information.

The ruling also notes that Doe waited more then the required eight years to request that his record be expunged, and met all the prerequisites to required for the request.