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132nd MAINE LEGISLATURE
FIRST SPECIAL SESSION-2025
Legislative Document No. 1918
H.P. 1279 House of Representatives, May 6, 2025
An Act to Clarify the Criminal History Record Information Act
with Respect to Criminal Charges Dismissed as the Result of a Plea
Agreement
Reported by Representative KUHN of Falmouth for the Joint Standing Committee on
Judiciary pursuant to Resolve 2023, chapter 103, section 8.
Reference to the Committee on Judiciary suggested and ordered printed pursuant to Joint
Rule 218.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
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1Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
2Sec. 1. 16 MRSA §703, sub-§2, ¶G, as enacted by PL 2013, c. 267, Pt. A, §2, is
3 amended to read:
4 G. Information disclosing that a criminal charge has been dismissed by a court with
5 prejudice or dismissed with finality by a prosecutor other than as part of a plea
6 agreement in which the defendant pleads guilty to and is convicted of another criminal
7 charge. If a defendant admits to and is adjudicated as having committed a civil
8 violation or a traffic infraction as part of a plea agreement, but does not also plead
9 guilty to and is not also convicted of a criminal charge as part of that agreement,
10 information disclosing that a criminal charge has been dismissed by a court with
11 prejudice or dismissed with finality by a prosecutor as part of that agreement is
12 confidential criminal history record information;
13Sec. 2. 16 MRSA §705, sub-§5 is enacted to read:
145. Charges dismissed as result of deferred disposition. Notwithstanding any
15 provision of this chapter to the contrary and subject to the Maine Rules of Evidence,
16 including rules regarding relevancy, a party may introduce in any civil or criminal
17 proceeding evidence that a defendant pled guilty to a crime as part of a deferred disposition
18 for purposes of establishing that the defendant admitted to committing that crime, even if,
19 after the defendant complied with the court-imposed deferment requirements, the
20 defendant's guilty plea was later withdrawn and the underlying criminal charge was
21 dismissed by the court with prejudice.
22SUMMARY
23 This bill is reported out by the Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary to implement
24 statutory changes recommended by the Criminal Records Review Committee, which was
25 established pursuant to Resolve 2023, chapter 103. The joint standing committee has not
26 taken a position on the substance of this bill. By reporting this bill out, the joint standing
27 committee is not suggesting and does not intend to suggest that it agrees or disagrees with
28 any aspect of this bill; instead, the joint standing committee is reporting the bill out for the
29 sole purpose of having a bill printed that can be referred to the joint standing committee for
30 an appropriate public hearing and subsequent processing in the normal course. The joint
31 standing committee is taking this action to ensure clarity and transparency in the legislative
32 review of the proposals contained in the bill.
33 The bill clarifies that information disclosing that a criminal charge has been dismissed
34 as part of a plea agreement is not confidential criminal history record information if the
35 defendant pleads guilty to and is convicted of another criminal charge as part of the plea
36 agreement. By contrast, if, as a result of a plea agreement, a defendant admits to and is
37 adjudicated as having committed a civil violation or a traffic infraction but does not also
38 plead guilty to and become convicted of a criminal charge, information disclosing that a
39 criminal charge has been dismissed as part of the plea agreement is confidential criminal
40 history record information.
41 The bill also codifies the rule set forth in Gordon v. Cheskin, 2013 ME 113, that "the
42 dismissal of [a criminal] charge after completion of [a] deferred disposition does not cast a
43 blanket of confidentiality over the course of the proceedings up to that point." Instead, "a
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44 court in a later proceeding is not precluded from considering the defendant's admission of
45 guilt in open court. An admission to specific behavior may be considered in a later
46 proceeding, if that behavior is relevant to the matter before the court."
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