3,000 Kansas Citians have had weed charges cleared, but still thousands of records to go

Circuit courts across Missouri have scrambled to expunge all nonviolent marijuana misdemeanor cases by this month to meet a deadline set by the amendment that legalized recreational use. But court officials say it will be a while before all eligible records have been entirely wiped clean.

Missouri is the first state to include an automatic expungement process in its legalization law, according to Jack Cardetti, a strategist that worked on the constitutional amendment. Activists who supported the amendment believe this process of clearing records will help more people participate in society, get better jobs and potentially enter into the marijuana industry themselves.

Clay County is one of the only counties to review and expunge all of its 1,500 plus misdemeanor marijuana charges on file. Across the four major Missouri counties that make up the Kansas City area, only 2,960 cases were expunged by the deadline.

“This all takes some time,” Jackson County Circuit Court spokesperson Valerie Hartman told The Star in January. “We have devoted considerable resources from multiple departments to set up our processes. We are currently undertaking this major project and managing it with the staff that we have.”

Clay County has expunged a total of 1,541 misdemeanor cases, the fifth-most cases expunged statewide. Jackson County has expunged 1,170 cases and Cass and Platte Counties have expunged 182 and 63 cases, respectively.

The expungement process outlined in the state’s constitution was intended to be somewhat of an automatic process where courtrooms review and expunge the records of any nonviolent marijuana offenses, with the exception of cases related to driving under the influence or selling weed to minors. The first June 8 deadline was for misdemeanor charges and other lower-level offenses, after which courtrooms will be responsible for expunging felony charges too.

“We just started knocking them out,” Clay County Circuit Court Clerk Lee Bucksath said. “We knew that there was no need to wait and we knew we had a deadline coming up. So we just got in and processed what we were supposed to process.”

Although Missouri courts have successfully expunged more than 46,680 charges, each county likely has more cases left to review and few resources to help manage such a large task.

How many more cases are left to expunge?

There is no concrete number for how many cases qualify for automatic expungement because some cases are filed simply as “controlled substances.” This makes things complicated, because it means that court staffers are reviewing all drug cases dating back to 1971 to make sure they find all qualifying marijuana cases eligible for expungement, according to Cass County Circuit clerk Kim York.

“So we have to look at every single case that says controlled substance and review the documents to see if marijuana was the controlled substance or something else,” York said, adding that Cass county has reviewed thousands of cases so far even though less than 200 required an expungement.

Older case files are likely not uploaded into state and county databases, which could make the review process even more difficult and time-consuming. In Jackson County, digital files only date back to 1993. That means the 16th Circuit court will have 22 years’ worth of print case files to review.

“It’s more complex and time intensive as we go back in time,” Greene County circuit clerk Bryan Feemster said.

Once counties are finished reviewing misdemeanor cases, they will have to work quickly to review nonviolent felony cases by early fall. Those cases will include more serious charges including felony cases involving three pounds or less of marijuana.

The counties that have made the most progress on the expungement process include Buchanan, Greene, St. Charles and Phelps counties, which have each expunged more than 1,500 cases in time for the June deadline.

Green County has expunged the second most cases in the state, but Feemster said there are at least 16,000 more cases left to review and potentially expunge. There is no estimate available for how many Cass, Jackson and Platte counties have left. Clay County’s circuit clerk said he believes they have less than 1,500 more cases to review.

Freemster said that each case takes his team an average of two hours to review entirely. He estimates that the task will require upwards of 37,000 labor hours and around $1 million to pay for that labor before every eligible case in Greene County is expunged.

What about people still in jail?

Missourians who are in jail or prison for weed charges will not have their records automatically expunged, but they can file for expungement and have their cases reviewed and their records potentially sealed, according to the amendment that legalized recreational weed. People with charges of violent crimes, or whose offenses involved distribution to a minor or driving under the influence of marijuana, will still not be able to get those charges expunged.

Jackson County has filed 17 marijuana expungement petitions, the most in the state as of June 8. Clay County has filed four petitions for expungement, Cass County has one and Platte County has not filed any petitions yet. More than 100 petitions have been filed statewide. It’s unclear how many of those people who petitioned have been granted expungement yet.