The Iowa Court of Appeals has sided with prosecutors in a case involving a former northeast Iowa college student who had two “public intox” convictions before his 21st birthday.
In May of 2006 Samuel Myers was charged with public intoxication in Black Hawk County. Almost a year later Myers was convicted of second-offense public intoxication.
Myers applied to have those convictions erased from his record, arguing he’d graduated from college, undergone substance abuse treatment and made positive changes in his life. He’d also reached the legal drinking age of 21 by then.
A district court granted Myers’ request to be exonerated, but state prosecutors appealed, citing his second public intox charge about a year after the first. State law lets people appeal to have their public intoxication convictions expunged if they go for two years without any other criminal convictions.
The Court of Appeals has ruled that two year period had not expired in Myers’ case.